Christiana White, the author of Forest Notebooks on Substack, spent ten years dreaming with moving to Spain. She finally took the plunge, but it didn't turn out the way she hoped.

I wanted to find out what went wrong, so you can learn what could go wrong for you if you’re planning a move.

Here is the interview.

Why did you decide to move to Spain? And where were you living previously in the US?

I decided to move to Spain to see what it would be like to live in Europe on my EU passport, as a test for retirement/semi-retirement. I also was/am/remain horrified by Donald Trump and all that he represents and saddened by what has happened to our country. The cruelty is hard to bear. Prices are high here in California, and I was under the impression the cost of living would be less in Spain.

I wanted to live in a beautiful/charming city with less focus on cars, more focus on walking. I also sought a safer city. Finally, healthy, affordable food was a big draw for me.

I lived in Oakland, California previous to my move to Spain.

Did you consider other countries?

No, not really. I have a foundation in Spanish and wanted to move to a country where I had at least basic understanding of the language. I wanted to live in Europe, as I am in possession of an EU passport.

Were you planning the move for a long time?

Yes, I’d been talking and dreaming about it for at least a decade.

Where in Spain did you settle and why did you choose this location?

I settled in Madrid because I like cosmopolitan, diverse, multicultural cities with plenty of focus on the arts. I also wanted to be near a large international airport.

What were the most rewarding parts of your new life in Spain?

The food and food shopping was a revelation. The quality was superb and prices were affordable compared to California. Being able to eat out at cafes, tabernas, and restaurants without too much concern because there’s a price point for most strata of society. It seemed most people from most walks of life had a local cafe, taberna, and Menu del Dia suitable for their budget. This is a big difference from California, where we’re lacking mid-range options.

What were the most challenging parts of your new life in Spain?

After the fun and newness of exploration died down, I was left feeling very lonely, even though I was a member of a very active and wonderful international women’s 50+ expat group.

I didn’t have work or a project so the days were spent meeting new friends at fun new places. While that’s entirely lovely, it begins to feel shallow if that’s all there is.

I had no “hook” into the culture or society, no purpose. That was difficult, and I think difficult for others too, judging by the amount people (expats) seemed to be drinking (alcohol).

Being an ocean away from my children was too far, and when the war in Iran began, I became (perhaps irrationally) afraid airline prices would rise exponentially, and I’d effectively be “stuck” in Europe.

ot speaking the language well gets wearing after some months. I was unable to participate in society or socialize with my neighbors. I began to feel like an imposter and/or like a fish out of water. I had no place there. I wasn’t sure I had a right to be there.

If a friend of yours decided to move to Spain, either to work or to retire, what would be the top three pieces of advice you would give them so they have an easier transition?

Have a job or a project as a ballast that steadies you and gives you a place in society. Just exploring and eating out is not enough.

Learn as much of the language as possible to reduce feelings of alienation.

Be clear-eyed about the pain of leaving children and family behind.

Most of all: Have plenty of money for trips home.

Recently you returned to the US. after only 8 months in Spain. Why did you decide to come back?

I was too far away. I had no place there. It began to feel shallow. I felt like a diletante. I felt I was wasting time. I missed my friends and community. I also missed having a deep sense of place.

I felt fortunate to have a home [in the US] and wanted to return and honor it. I felt I was being unrealistic and ungrateful, thinking I could create in a short space of time what took decades to build here. I realized I didn’t want to start all over again.

I also realized, fundamentally, that I didn’t want to grow old(er) and die in Spain. Once that became apparent, “moving to Spain” became just a jaunt, a fantasy. I knew I’d return home. It was just a matter of time, and in my case, that time was sooner rather than later as I’d like to work a few more years before “real” retirement.

Are you planning to move outside of the US in the future or did this experience convince you to stay put?

For now, I believe I will stay put, however, I may choose to do a six-month away/six-month here arrangement where I can keep my roots, but have adventures and possibly lower my cost of living for half the year to make retirement more affordable.

What will you miss the most from your Spanish lifestyle? Do you think you can somehow reproduce it here?

I will miss feeling and knowing that I am safe on the street. I don’t feel that way here. I can’t reproduce it, unfortunately.

I will miss the tomato and sardine salads. Thankfully, I can reproduce those here, if I can find top-quality tinned seafood.

You publish a newsletter in Substack entitled Forest Notebooks. Can you tell my readers what they can find in your newsletter?

My newsletter is about food, place, travel, memory, love, and the reckonings of midlife.

Subscribe now

Read the previous installments of the series “Spain vs. US: A Lifestyle Challenge”:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common pitfalls of would-be expats in Spain: An interview with Kevin Brass, the author fo the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Read Part 13: A successful move to Spain, family in tow: An interview with Jen Cook.

Read Part 14: Weighing the options

Share

Leave a comment

In the past few weeks I have been comparing life in Spain versus the US. I rated 22 different aspects and came up with the following score:

The numbers don’t seem to match because if you add 14 + 9 = 23, but there was a tie, which means both countries got 1 point in a certain topic; that’s why it comes out to a total of 23 when I examined only 22 topics.

The next step I decided to take was giving different weights to each topic to see what is the REAL score, because living an ocean away from our son is obviously much more important than the fact that the movie listings are better in Spain.

I did this, and I asked my husband to do the same. I can’t show the information in a full spreadsheet because Substack doesn't have that format, so in the list below, the first number is the weight I gave to that item, the second number is the weight my husband gave to the same item, the third number is the total and in parentheses you have the country that won that category.

Before I add quantities and reach a final score, I'd like to offer you a few thoughts.

The first thing that jumped at me when I looked at this chart is that, even though my husband didn’t know what weight I gave to any item, there was only one instance when we were two points apart: climate change was a 10 for me and an 8 for him.

This discrepancy does not surprise me because I am very focused on this topic. I read a lot about it, I think a lot about it, and I do everything I can to reduce our impact, from installing solar panels to hanging clothes to dry in the yard instead of using the drier when weather allows. My husband is not as obsessed as I am.

In every other topic we were only 1 point apart, or we had the same score. It was reassuring to see that we are aligned.

The weight I gave to some of the topics may surprise you. I’d like to explain my reasoning.

Many people started to think about leaving the US when Trump won the last election. Some actually left. Yet, even though I abhor the Trump administration, I gave politics only a 7, below climate change.

That’s because administrations come and go. More importantly, in Spain the political discourse is as vitriolic as here and the right and the extreme right, which has modeled itself after Trump, are ascending. They have already won some regional elections, and it looks like they may also take the general election.

Furthermore, even though reading the news and observing the slide of the US into an authoritarian regime is agonizing, our daily life is somewhat insulated from politics, except for the damage inflation is inflicting on our finances.

I also see a lot of people that choose Spain due to its amazing food and excellent public transportation.

Those aspects are very important for me as well, but I didn’t give them a higher weight because I cook almost daily and I am a good cook, so we eat well in the US. I do miss dining out at affordable prices several times a week.

As for public transportation, it’s a true treasure that has many positive repercussions in daily life, but it is not a make it or break it. I won’t uproot myself just so I don’t need to use a car on a daily basis.

All together, the many factors that improve one’s lifestyle have a lot of weight, but individually, I cannot give a 10 to every one of them.

Mass tourism is a plague and I hate it. Yet, if we moved to Barcelona I would know how to avoid it. It would mean forsaking some of my favorite neighborhoods, but I could survive with the rest of this wonderful city.

Although Spain clearly wins the social connection aspect, since people live to connect with friends and family, I didn’t give it a higher score because it would be hard to reproduce the close friendships we have here when starting from scratch in Spain, especially for my husband.

Finally, although I have scored every item’s weight from 1 to 10, I feel uncomfortable scoring “Family and Community” by the same measurement. Our son is by far the most important factor in the whole list, and no matter what the numbers say, leaving him behind is an excruciating thought for us.

Perhaps if he were older and settled I would feel differently, but he’s only 24 and still lives with us while he saves enough money to become independent, which is not easy in the expensive Bay Area.

I feel like I should give that item a 20 instead of a 10.

But for the sake of clarity, let’s see where we end up with the current weighted scores.

If I give Family and Community 20 instead of 10, I have:

I also wanted to figure out how the gap between Spain and the US changed from the initial score (14-9) to the second score (178-137), percentage wise. I asked Chat GPT to help for this calculation because I am terrible at math. This is what it told me:

“The relative gap is substantially larger in Ranking 1.

Ranking 1: Spain leads the US by 48%.

Ranking 2: Spain leads the US by 26.03 %.”

In other words, when you add weights to each score, Spain still leads, but by much less.

Even with a smaller percentage gap, the results are clear. Moving to Spain should be a shoe-in.

Why do I keep having so many hesitations?

The truth is that I came back from Spain convinced we needed to move there as soon as our son could support himself independently, which will be in the next year or so. I spent a month depressed here in California, pining for our easy life in Spain.

Now that we’ve been back home almost three months and I have settled into the comforting rhythm of our lives, my feelings have changed.

I realized that the cause of my depression was not only that I was back in the US, but that I didn’t like the life I had built in Vallejo, where we moved three years ago. I was always busy, but I didn’t enjoy the majority of the things I was dedicating time to.

I have made some changes since that realization (a topic for another post). As a result, my daily living has become more relaxed and positive.

I still have a lot to puzzle out, but my mood has improved.

The prospect of a move to a different continent is also overwhelming. What would we do with all our stuff? Where would we land? Do we keep our house and rent it out or sell it and cut ties with California for good?

So MANY questions.

One thing we know for sure: we need to spend more time in Spain as visitors before we take such a momentous decision. We are already plotting our next stay, possibly this coming winter.

In the meantime, I plan to continue interviewing some expats who have moved successfully or have returned, as well as people who have chosen a third option: half a year in Spain and half in the US. I want to know how they manage it from a financial and logistical point of view, and how they like it.

I also plan to start writing about other topics, as I did before.

I hope you will join me for the ride.

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Read Part 13: A Successful Move to Spain, Family in Tow: An Interview with Jen Cook.

Leave a comment

As part of my series comparing Spain and the US I am doing a few interviews with people who have moved to Spain successfully, go to Spain often but decided not to move, or moved to Spain but decided to return to the US. I hope their perspectives will help you with your own decision if you’re considering a move.

Today I’m sharing my interview with , the author of the newsletter Poco a poco. Jen moved to Valencia, Spain, with her husband and two kids in 2024 and she loved living there.

Here is the interview.

Why did you decide to leave the United States with your family?

Will and I always knew we wanted to travel more. We assumed we’d wait until our kids had flown the nest, and then we’d take off in pursuit of our own adventure.

In 2023, as we were getting back into the car after filling out our kids’ first passport applications, we turned on the radio and heard the news that a school shooting had just occurred at a private school in Nashville. Suddenly, what felt like a hypothetical in some faraway state was knocking on our back door.

We were living in suburban Nashville and had a nice, typical American life. But I’d been struggling with wanting more since my mom passed away two-and-a-half years earlier. My mom was my hero, but she’d never really allowed herself to have the adventures she wanted. Instead, she was always saving, always planning for “someday.”

The Covenant shooting in Nashville wasn’t the catalyst for our move, but it was my wake-up call. I didn’t want to spend my life waiting for “someday” like my mom did —never getting to really enjoy what I’d worked so hard for. She was just a few days shy of her 70th birthday when she passed, and it made me realize we don’t all get the opportunity to retire the way we think we will.

So I went down a rabbit hole, wondering if we could move earlier than retirement. Will is always up for one of my crazy schemes, and so he indulged me, talking about moving abroad ad nauseum. When I finally presented this elaborate plan to move us all to Spain (and he still can’t remember how I convinced him!), he was all in. We’d move as a family adventure, and if it worked out, we’d stay longer than the two or three years we planned initially.

Why did choose Spain as your destination and why, specifically, did you choose Valencia?

I’ve always struggled with seasonal depression, so if we moved abroad, I needed it to be a climate where I could get more sun than I was getting in Tennessee. Tennessee winters are dark, gloomy, rainy, and cloudy. That narrowed down the countries quite a bit, leaving Portugal, Spain, Greece, parts of Italy, and parts of France. (I was focused primarily on Western Europe because that was always the dream.)

After exploring Portugal a bit, I eventually pivoted to Spain. Part of its appeal was the language. In the U.S., we have quite a bit of exposure to Spanish, and I underestimated how difficult it can be to learn. Alas, I was determined and dove in on Duolingo and whatever other materials I could get my hands on.

Another part of Spain’s appeal was its access to the rest of Europe. Will and I decided that if we were going to live in Europe, we also wanted to travel as much of it as we could.

Those were the two biggest reasons, but as we narrowed down cities, other things became just as important. In October 2023, we took our kids on a scouting trip over our fall break, exploring Cartagena, Murcia, Altea, and Barcelona. Ultimately, we landed in Valencia, a city we’d never visited until we moved there in August 2024.

Valencia offered everything we were looking for in a city without the busyness of Barcelona or Madrid. We had lots of options when it came to schools, which was a huge bonus since we were targeting private schools with limited space. Valencia is a lively, compact city without overwhelming us —our Goldilocks city. And while Valencia has its downsides, namely, the summer heat and humidity, it still had far more pluses for us than minuses.

What have been the biggest challenges for you and your husband?

Language is our biggest challenge. I’ve managed to pick up enough Spanish to hold a basic conversation, and I understand far more than I can speak. I’m still striving to learn more all the time, but as a couple in our 40s, we’ve accepted it’s going to take longer than our kids. Our kids are learning at a much faster clip, and I expect they’ll hit fluency long before we hit “comfortable.” Will isn’t a language person, so he’s struggled with it more than I have.

I’d say the next biggest challenge has been overcoming the visa processes. There’s always another form to complete, a process to show up for, or a visa renewal on the horizon. But that is the life of an immigrant, and I’m looking forward to becoming permanent residents in a few more years.

What have been the biggest challenges for your kids?

The first year of school here in Spain was rough. Both kids struggled to find their social connections, although we put them in extracurricular activities as soon as we could. That helped with learning the language and integrating into the local community a bit more.

Our son’s first year of middle school was also his first year here, so there was a lot of transition happening all at once. Moving a 12-year-old is a lot different than moving a six-year-old, and although he’s happy and adjusted now, he still stays in touch with his friends back in the U.S. At first, he asked often when we were moving back to the U.S. He no longer asks that question, but it took a solid year-and-a-half for that to happen.

At 10, our daughter was a little more adaptable and accepting of Spain as our new home. She has a bubbly personality, but she’s also shy, and so she struggled with making friends at first. In the second school year here, she came out of her shell and has a whole posse of friends now.

What have been the biggest rewards for you and your family?

My dream was always to show my kids the world, and I’ve been able to begin doing that a bit at a time. Our first year in Spain, we traveled all around the country, visiting new cities and places we’d heard about but never been. And there’s still so much of Spain to visit! We’re far from done. But we’ve also now begun to expand into the rest of Europe. This summer, we traveled to Paris, and this winter, we’re going to Finnish Lapland. Who knows where we’ll land next year, but showing them the world outside of the U.S. has been so much fun.

We’ve all learned we can depend on one another no matter what. Until we built a community, all we had was each other. It made us stronger as a family.

Our lifestyle pace slowed down more gradually, but we can now sit down for dinner at a restaurant and linger. We’re no longer in a rush to leave and get to the next thing.

Did you ever regret making this move or were you always sure this was the right decision for you and your family?

I’ve had moments of regret but never true regret, if that makes sense. When one of our kids was struggling with their new social life that they probably wouldn’t have struggled with back in Tennessee, I wondered, “Did we do the right thing?” My husband has had those same moments. But on the whole, we really believe this was the right move for us. We’re happy here, and the longer we’re here, the more it feels like home.

What do you miss the most from the US?

Food! Spanish food is amazing and fresh, but admittedly, leaving behind familiar foods is hard. There’s something about food that becomes a cultural touchstone and is attached to important memories. For me, growing up in the Southeastern United States, I particularly miss biscuits and sausage gravy. It’s the one craving I haven’t been able to completely satisfy here in Spain. And if anyone has any great recipes they want to share, I’m all ears!

Some of the biggest concerns for people considering a move to Spain are the high taxes and how climate change is affecting Europe, especially with the intense heat waves this summer. How do you deal with these challenges?

Yes, taxes are high in Spain. But I would challenge the viewpoint that taxes in the U.S. are low. Because yes, federal taxes are lower, but once you factor in health insurance costs (which I compare to a tax in my piece on taxes), property taxes, gas taxes, and all the other various taxes each state levies, the difference between Spanish and American taxes isn’t all that great.

Climate change, the heat, and the wildfires are definitely hard to handle in the summer. There were thousands of heat-related deaths across Europe this summer, and air conditioning hasn’t been embraced in many countries. Luckily, Spain seems to have mostly decided air conditioning is worth having, and our apartment is fully equipped with it. But because electricity is expensive here, when the weather starts to cool, we open the windows and turn off the AC.

I personally kind of “hibernate” in the summer like a bear does in the winter. I’m very averse to heat and humidity as a fair-skinned strawberry blonde and resemble a tomato when I get too hot. For the month of August, I’m mostly indoors. We have an elderly dog, and in the future, when he’s no longer with us, I’d like to spend summers somewhere cooler—or at least spend more time traveling to cooler places.

How can someone considering Spain as a destination prepare so they are successful in their move?

Embrace the culture. Learn the language as much as possible before you move. Understand that this is not the U.S., and ask yourself what you can offer to this country. Even the Spanish complain about taxes, but understand that those taxes support the very infrastructure that’s probably attracting you to Spain. And don’t be the immigrant who refuses to adapt to Spanish culture. Be humble and kind, and you’ll receive much kindness in return. The people here are some of the warmest, kindest I’ve met anywhere.

You publish the Substack newsletter Poco a poco. Can you tell my readers what they can find in your newsletter?

I share stories about our lives in Spain, alongside some advice about things I’ve had to learn along the way —like cooking with different ingredients or how to get a digital certificate and why you might want that. I touch on parenting, healthcare … a little bit of everything, really. It’s a snapshot of our day-to-day lives as we adapt poco a poco (little by little).

Read the previous installments of the series “Spain vs. US: A Lifestyle Challenge”:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common pitfalls of would-be expats in Spain: An interview with Kevin Brass, the author fo the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

I’m taking a breather from my series comparing Spain and the US to bring a fresh perspective.

Kevin Brass, a longtime writer for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Urban Land and Financial Times, and the publisher of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy, answers my questions about what helps or thwarts Americans considering a permanent move to Spain.

Here is the interview.

When was the first time you visited Barcelona?

Sadly, I managed to miss Barcelona in my early days wandering Europe. Not the only mistake I made during that time.

My first time in Barcelona was actually a solo press trip. Spain’s tourism bureau flew me out for a couple of nights in Barcelona and a drive around the Dali triangle sites.

Frankly, I didn’t get the city my first couple of trips. The tourist sites were crowded. The neighborhoods all looked the same. People were kinda rude. It took a few longer visits before I started to appreciate the city. When I started to get away from the tourist areas, I began to understand the beauty of the walkable neighborhoods. I settled into daily life. And then I started to become mildly obsessed with the events, people and quirks of history that shaped the city.

You visited Barcelona regularly for years and then used it as a home base while working full time as a journalist but never applied for a resident visa. Instead you did “visa runs” to re-enter legally as a tourist. Can you tell me why you chose not to apply for a resident visa?

Ultimately, it was the language thing. I’m terrible at languages and I’m not going to get better.

I am very comfortable working internationally. And my crummy Mexican Spanish helps. But day-to-day life in a community where it is always a challenge to communicate just gets tiring. I wanted to be able to chat with grocery clerks and waiters again.

Are you considering a permanent move to Spain in the future and if not, why not?

Good question. I’m definitely ratcheting down my workload these days. But it’s complicated. Family involved. Either way, I’ll definitely be spending long periods in Barcelona and Spain in the next few years. Typically, I’m in Spain at least once or twice a year.

As a journalist for the New York Times, you often interviewed expats. What do you see as the most common reasons for an unsuccessful “permanent” move to Spain from the US?

It usually starts with the bureaucracy. Things simply work differently in Spain and Americans, in particular, often have a tough time adjusting. Even with the help of a good attorney or estate agent, the transition takes time and money. People get frustrated. And, for some people, that frustration never goes away.

But it goes beyond that. A lot of people pick the wrong location. They choose rural, when they should be in the city or vice versa. Or they just pick a spot they end up not liking.

A lot of Americans have trouble finding their community in Spain. They’re surprised to discover there are not that many Americans here. And there is no guarantee that Americans here want to socialize with newbie Americans. You can’t just parachute in and link up with the “American community.” And it can be very difficult to integrate into local Spanish communities.

And Americans tends to underestimate how much they will miss friends and families. Sure, people will visit. You’ll see relatives you’ve never met before showing up at your doorstep. But many people think when they move to Spain it’ll be a quick hop to go home. But going back and forth to the States is a drag, especially if you can’t get a direct flight, and it wears on people, especially if they have older relatives.

What would you say that most Americans who move to Spain successfully have in common?

They found their tribe. And they have something very specific to do in Spain. They have work, a hobby, some sort of passion that connects to the place. It’s tougher when all you want to do is sit on the beach.

You have to remember why you chose Spain and take advantage of that every day. And for many people, I’ve noticed, that means the traveling continues. They use Spain as a base to explore Europe and North Africa. Spain is not the end destination, just a launching pad.

Do you think Spain is a good destination for American retirees? What would be their main challenges and their main rewards?

Overall, I think Spain is relatively easy for Americans. There are familiar touchpoints. Those little bits that most Americans know about Spain, the awareness with the language and culture, will help. You may only know a few words of Spanish, but that’s probably a few more than you know in Portuguese or French.

There is also an established expat infrastructure. Some locals may smirk at tourists, but there is nothing unusual in Spain about a dumbass English-speaking expat. A million Brits have paved the way for you, especially along the costas. Of course, you must also bear the burden of generations of annoying English-speaking tourists and expats, and that backlash is real. It’s just an attitude you need to deal with occasionally. It’s not a deal breaker.

In terms of the global competition for retirees, Spain has clear benefits. Spain brings you into a country where art, history and passion are part of life. Every American should experience Spain (and Europe, in general). And the weather is the best in Europe, which is not a small detail.

For retirees, Spain offers many advantages. Daily life is definitely cheaper. It’s easy to reduce your budget, eat healthy and live better. Dinner and a bottle of wine at a restaurant is much less expensive. Trains and taxis are affordable. And if you’re living in one of the big, over-priced American housing markets, Spain property is still relatively affordable to buy or rent, especially if you’re willing to venture away from the big tourist areas.

There is also a pretty straight-forward retirement visa available (known in Spain as the Non-Lucrative Visa, or NLV). You will almost certainly need to get private health insurance, but it’s typically pretty affordable, maybe $200 to $300 a month. And the quality of care should be pretty good.

High taxes, climate change, small apartments: These are three factors that may concern an American who is thinking about moving to Spain: Which one is the most worrisome in your opinion and why?

All those things definitely take some of the fun out of it. You can include over tourism. It’s a real issue. It changes the experience in many cities in Spain. I think COVID added an additional twist for a lot of expats and potential expats — that fear of being stranded, isolated. So maybe the bigger concern is world turmoil, in general, that can make you feel far away from home. You may want to get home and you won’t be able to.

Of course, you can reverse that idea. You might argue that there are many times when it is safer and calmer to be far away from the United States.

If a potential expat asked you which city in Spain would be best for a retiree, which one would you recommend?

I’m biased. I fell in love with Barcelona. But many of the elements that draw me into the city are also great for retirees. It’s a very walkable city. It’s a city that treats elder people with respect. (Although that’s probably true of Spain, in general.) There are excellent facilities available. And there are constantly things to do. You want a city that will keep you busy and there are always things going on in Barcelona.

Moving away from Barcelona, I really love the small coastal towns. My girlfriend and I have been spending time on the Costa Brava. The little cove towns are great. It’s not as touristy as the coastal towns in the south. I’m eager to explore more.

You publish the newsletter Barcelona Anarchy in Substack and you plan to publish a book about Barcelona. Can you tell me what readers will find in your newsletter and in your upcoming book?

As a journalist, I’ve been collecting stories for years about architecture, history and life in Barcelona. It is a city that is full of stories. My book is a collection of essays on the topics and people that grabbed my attention over the years. I’ve spent years tracking some of the stories.

My website on Substack, Barcelona Anarchy (www.BarcelonaAnarchy.com), reflects many of those same themes. There is a travel tip section and plenty of information for travelers and expats, reflecting my own experiences. But a lot of the articles will focus on the elements, past and present, that make Barcelona such a cool, mysterious and misunderstood city. Barcelona Anarchy is definitely targeting a reader who is intrigued by Barcelona and is ready to learn more.

Buy me a coffee

Read the previous installments of the series “Spain vs. US: A Lifestyle Challenge”:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Share

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Read Part 1, where you’ll find links to all the articles in the series. The score so far: Spain - 14 US - 8.

Family and Community

One of the biggest fears potential expats have is leaving their family and friends behind.

It’s hard starting all over in a new country if you don’t know anyone there. You’re bound to wonder if you will be able to make new friends and create a strong community of like-minded people who will offer engaging conversations, shared interests, support and love.

It’s even harder if you have children and grandchildren that will not move with you.

This is our case. We have a 24 year old son who loves Spain but does not intend to move there. He's just started a promising career in the US and he has very close friends, many since childhood, that he would loathe to be so far away from. And his chances of finding a good job in Spain are much lower than here.

In the US it’s quite common, once the kids grow up, to end up living in different states and for family members to see each other two or three times a year: Thanksgiving, Christmas and a couple of weeks in the summer, if you’re lucky.

In my culture, though, family members usually live close to each other and frequent contact is the norm. We are ten siblings, and except for me, they all live within 30 miles of each other. When my parents were alive, the majority would meet every Sunday at their house for lunch, with spouses and grandchildren. It wasn’t rare to have 20 family members together every single week.

Now that my parents are deceased, my siblings see each other infrequently as a group, but some who live in close proximity still meet quite often.

Considering that I left my country and my family behind 34 years ago and only saw them every couple of years, it’s rich for me to dread being so far from my son, but I can’t help it.

On the other hand, if we visit him yearly for an extended period of time — a month or two — we would probably see him more than we will once he moves away from home and gets on with his life.

As we get older, though, the long trip and the jet lag will be harder to manage. Will our son visit us in Spain when we cannot take the trip yearly any longer for one reason or another? I hope so, but I don’t know. I only could visit Spain every two years and that may very well be the case for him. Two years without physical contact with our son would be very hard.

The separation will be even more wrenching if he has children. I would hate being far away from my grandchildren. I will admit though, that if we decide to move to Spain, we should do it before we become grandparents, because it would be ten times more difficult to leave at that point.

I have a big family in Spain, but I am not sure if we would land in Barcelona or its province, where they all live. And I am not very close with most of my siblings. Comparing the bond between us and my son and us and my siblings makes the emotional balance clearly tipped toward my son.

I also have more close friends in California than I have in Spain. Some of my dearest friends from my youth moved away from Barcelona, drifted away emotionally or passed away. A couple remain that I always visit when I go to Spain, and I have a lot of affection for a group of summer childhood friends, but I haven’t kept in close touch with the majority for the last 34 years.

That said, I left everything behind before, when I came to the US, and I know I can do it again. I can rebuild a community of new friends, and revive my network of old friends and family connections. It won’t be easy but it’s doable.

As per our American friends, I know many would be glad to visit us in Spain and we would see them when we come back to visit our son. That doesn’t worry me as much.

My husband, however, has never left the Bay Area. He has very close friends here, and a strong professional network linked to Latin music. He’s also more introverted than I am, so it might be more difficult for him to build a new community from scratch.

For both of us creating a new tight circle of friends at our age (I would be 70 when we move, he would be 75) is more difficult than doing it at 33, which is how old I was when I came here.

Thinking especially about my son and my husband’s loss of his close knit group of friends and music connections, I have to give the US the win for this one.

FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SCORE:

US: 1

SPAIN: 0

TOTAL SCORE: SPAIN IS WINNING 14-9

Subscribe now

Buy me a coffee

At this point, I have compared all the aspects I had in mind. You may say… “Well, it’s clear that Spain has won the match 14-9. You can now move there with the peace of mind that you examined every aspect and came to a clear conclusion.”

Not so fast!

I have examined 23 different topics, but clearly, some topics are more important than others. It’s not as crucial that the water in Barcelona is harsh on your skin and your hair and that it tastes nasty as the fact that the high Spanish taxes may diminish considerably the money you thought you had.

For this reason, I see two important next steps:

1. I need to assign a particular weight to each of those 23 factors. For example, a score from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most important and 1 being the least.

2. Once I have assigned that specific weight for each factor, I can get to a final score, and have a more realistic idea of where the chips settle.

I have no idea how to do this. Math is not my forte. But I will find out and I will share the results with you.

Another key step is talking to an international tax advisor for advice on our game plan if we actually move in a couple of years and to find out what my net worth would really be, after paying Spanish taxes.

Finally, we need to weigh different options:

• Should we move there and become permanent residents relatively soon?

• Should we spend several years dividing our time evenly — six months in the US and six months in Spain — so we are still fiscal residents in the US and can take a well informed decision?

• Should we stay with this arrangement for good, and never become Spain residents?

• If we choose the half and half option, can we support two houses or apartments, one in each country? I think not, so that’s an important consideration, but I need to know for sure.

• If we decide to become permanent residents in Spain, should we buy or rent an apartment?

• And of course, a very big decision: If we move to Spain, where should we settle? In a big city or a small one? In Barcelona, Valencia or the North of Spain, for example, Santander or Bilbao? Somewhere else?

In the next few weeks I will keep working on all these steps and options.

I will also publish some interviews with American expats (or people close to expats) who have moved to Spain successfully, and others who tried it and decided to come back.

I hope these upcoming articles will be useful or, at least, interesting to you.

Don’t miss the next article on Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Leave a comment

The last few days I’ve been glued to the Spanish newspaper El País, following the terrible wildfires in Spain. The biggest ones were between Madrid and Ávila, but more fires are burning in other provinces.

Last year Spain also had devastating fires, the worst happening in Galicia. Others burned in Catalonia and elsewhere.

Climate change will affect every country on Earth, but it will be felt earlier and harder in some regions, including Europe, as I explained in a recent post.

It’s enough to make you pause when considering a permanent move there.

I live in California, a state that has suffered many catastrophic fires in the last few years. Reading the Spanish news breaks my heart, because I see the same stories I have read before in US newspapers:

The first responders asserting they’ve never seen such uncontrollable wildfires before.

People displaced, fearing their homes have burnt.

Those returning and finding only ashes.

The finger pointing and the politicization of a tragedy.

The right denying climate change, assuring that heat waves and fires have happened throughout history, as if there were no scientific consensus that what’s happening right now IT’S NOT NORMAL —or better said, it’s the NEW normal.

Will we never learn? And how will we coexist with what’s coming? The increase in wildfires, floods, failed crops, water rationing, tsunamis…

The Earth has been beaten, abused, wrung dry. Now it’s rising like an angry dragon, burning us with the fire from its throat, and flooding cities with flicks of its tail.

Through it all, some of us try to keep going, to do our best, to leave our small, immediate world better than we found it.

We plant a tree, cultivate vegetables in a backyard garden, put up solar panels, help a neighbor, volunteer in our community, work hard to raise good, empathetic children. We choose kindness as our flag and our homeland, support good businesses, shun predatory companies if we can, strive to be good friends.

And we keep walking through waves of despair, even if our feet seem shod with leaden boots.

I almost didn’t write a newsletter this week. The world’s state, this country’s descent into fascism and cruelty, and some personal setbacks made it hard to get up in the morning, let alone write a coherent article.

But I did get up. I opened the windows to the morning air so the breeze could cool the house. I journaled. I prepared a healthy breakfast. All while the only thing I really wanted to do was eating cookies and watching TV all day.

And now I am writing this piece, because I think it may be useful to someone who is considering moving outside the US, or simply curious about this topic.

Onward.

P’alante siempre, p’atrás ni p’a coger impulso.

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Read Part 1, where you’ll find links to all the articles in the series. The score so far: Spain - 13 US - 7.

Health Insurance

You all know that Spain has universal healthcare. It’s called Sistema Nacional de Salud and it covers all Spaniards equitably and free of charge at the point of care. It’s funded mainly through taxes, which explains why taxes are high in Spain.

According to the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the benefits package is comprehensive. Although you do have co-pays for medications and prostheses, out-of-pocket payments do not result in catastrophic spending for households. Compare that to the US, where we are always one medical emergency away from financial ruin.

According to the World Health Organization’s latest analysis, Spain’s healthcare system ranks number 7 in the world, compared to the US ranking of 37th. (I’ve seen other sources listing Spain as #20 or so, but in every single source the US fares worse.)

Spaniards’ life expectancy is 84.08 years, while life expectancy in the US is 79.76 years. This almost 5 year gap is not all related to healthcare, obviously, but having free access to good doctors sure helps.

That doesn’t mean the system is perfect in Spain. The waits for non urgent doctor visits and procedures are VERY long, up to six months or more. Yet, public hospitals and surgeons are the best. Even people who have private insurance often choose a public hospital for a major surgery.

This won’t help you if you are not a Spaniard. In our case, I have double nationality, but my husband doesn’t, so he will not be covered by the Sistema Nacional de Salud and will need to get private health insurance.

In fact, if you move to Spain and you are not a national, to be eligible for residency you will need to prove that you have purchased private health insurance, so you will not be a burden for the public healthcare system.

Fortunately, Spain offers many options for private healthcare and they are much more affordable than in the US.

Premiums go up as you age, and they vary depending on which autonomic region you reside in and what type of plan you purchase. Plans with co-pays have lower monthly fees, while plans with no co-pays are more expensive.

Still, the most expensive private plan is much more affordable than any healthcare plan in the US, including the Affordable Care Act marketplace which, thanks to Trump ending the subsidies, is not affordable anymore.

To give you an example of a few prices for different ages, according to this website which compares healthcare plans:

• At 20 years of age, a private health plan can go from €25/month for the most basic to €135/month for the most comprehensive, with no co-pays.

• At 30, it can go from €28/m to €136/m.

• At 40, from €32/m to €152/m.

• At 50, from €37/m to €191/m.

• At 60, from €53/m to €192/m.

• At 70, from €77/m to €523/m.

Now, there is a wrinkle for retirees. Some private healthcare plans will not cover people over 75 years old, but others do cover them. I have a friend closer to 80 than 70 years old who moved to Spain and was able to get a good healthcare plan for around €300 because she didn’t have any serious medical conditions, which could jack the price up considerably.

My husband would be around 75 when we move, but since he is in good health he could get a good and affordable private plan. Fortunately, because he’s married to a Spaniard, he would get Spanish nationality in about two years and, at that point, move to the free public healthcare network.

For us, then, Spain clearly wins in this regard, but I think it would win for any expat, since the prices of private healthcare plans are so much cheaper than in the US and the level of care so much better. Not to speak about the healthier lifestyle, that should make visits to the doctor’s office less frequent.

HEALTHCARE SCORE:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

TOTAL SCORE: SPAIN IS WINNING 14-7.

These essays are free, but your support is appreciated. Consider subscribing or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Subscribe now

Buy me a coffee

Green Urban Spaces

I don’t know about you, but an important criteria for me when choosing a place to live is that I can hear birds frequently, if not daily. Which means I need to be surrounded by or close to green spaces.

In the US we are spoiled. More than 60% of the housing stock is made of single family units, usually houses with a garden. This will change in the future, since there is an urgent need for more housing, and construction needs to prioritize urban density and apartment buildings.

There are many advantages to living in apartments, which is how most people live in Europe. Aside from less maintenance and expenses, dense cities, when paired with a good public transportation system, create a dynamism and ease of access for goods and services that it’s impossible to replicate in most places in the US, with its car centric culture.

Having a garden, though, is a balm for the soul.

I grew up in a house with a garden in Barcelona, which is unusual, and I knew that I wanted to own a home one day where I could open the door and touch soil. I was able to do it in California and it has made me happy.

But goals change as you evolve. As I age, taking care of a garden is becoming more difficult and other things that were less important are gaining relevance. For me, now, living in a place where walking is a way of life and everything you need is easily reachable by foot or metro is a big attraction.

Being close to green spaces, however, is non negotiable. I need them for my happiness and my peace of mind.

On this topic the US has a big advantage. Even in a mid size to big city, green spaces surround us. Parks, gardens, trees in most streets, flowers in front yards… Wildlife is also omnipresent: I see or hear regularly bluejays, owls, hawks, hummingbirds, squirrels, wild turkeys, and even sometimes deer, skunks, and the odd coyote or bobcat.

In Vallejo, a city of 125,000 people, there are more than 20 urban parks and a lovely waterfront. I have the Benicia State Park five minutes from my house by car, and many other beautiful parks and gardens in surrounding cities.

That’s not the case in Spain. Cities have beautiful buildings, squares, streets and ambience, but many lack green urban spaces. Barcelona, for example, has some small parks that you can walk through in only 10 minutes, and they are few and far between. The biggest one, Parc de la Ciutadella, is overrun with tourists, so I don’t set foot there.

The scarce trees that line the streets look anemic, suffocated by heavy traffic and pollution. Mostly they are sycamores (not the American variety which is bigger and lusher), and they throw tons of pollen in spring that cause acute allergies.

There is a beautiful mountain range and park in the outskirts of Barcelona, the Park of Collserola, but you need a car to get there.

Valencia is better in that regard, due to the Turia Park built on the bed of a river.

But in general, the richness and sheer size of green urban spaces in the US, both via private gardens and public parks, take the cake. And you know what I’d miss tremendously? Redwood trees. Going to a grove of majestic, giant redwoods, for me, is like going to church.

GREEN URBAN SPACES:

US: 1

SPAIN: 0

TOTAL SCORE: SPAIN IS WINNING 14-8

Subscribe now

Buy me a coffee

Don’t miss the next article on Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Leave a comment

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Read Part 1, where you’ll find links to all the articles in the series. The score so far: Spain - 11 US - 7.

Before I start today’s topics, allow me to say this:

¡Campeooones, campeoooones! Olé, olé, olé, olé, olééééééé…

As told by @SpainSays:

“I am happy with little. If little means to see a whole country jumping up from the sofa at the same time.”

Indeed. What a win from La Roja in the World Cup with a goal in the 106 minute! I’m still savoring it.

Well, now that I got this out of my system, I’ll get down to the business of comparing Spain with the US.

We’ve covered many topics (see list of previous articles at the end of this post) but today we’re discussing a biggie.

Affordability

Aside from the high quality of daily life in Spain and other European countries, affordability is a major reason many American retirees and Spanish immigrants in the US consider uprooting themselves from the country where they have spent all or most of their lives.

According to Numbeo and Expatistan, two websites that analyze the cost of living in different countries and even in different cities per country through crowdsourcing, Spain can be between 23% and 40% cheaper than the US.

Big cities, especially Madrid and Barcelona, are much more expensive than smaller cities. Mid-size cities like Valencia, which has become very popular with expats, are rapidly becoming pricier. But no matter where you live, your costs will be less in Spain.

The biggest savings come in the following categories:

• Housing (rent or buy)

• Healthcare (we will talk specifically about this topic in another article)

• Public transportation

• Groceries

• Leisure

If you live in an expensive area in the US like I do, the difference between both countries grows exponentially. Expatistan calculates that San Francisco is 72% more expensive than Madrid.

Housing is typically the biggest item in a family’s budget. In Spain, the prices vary widely depending on the city. For example, according to Expatistan:

• In Barcelona, monthly rent for a 900 square feet furnished apartment, which is a good size for Spanish standards, can be between €1,400 and €2,000, with the highest range for apartments in expensive neighborhoods and the lower for middle class neighborhoods.

• In Valencia, renting the same size apartment would cost between €1,154 and €1,748.

• In Santander, a smaller city in the north of Spain, it would range from €697 to €1,040

• In smaller, less coveted but still very nice cities, especially if you want a quiet life, you can pay as little as €200 to €400 per month to rent an apartment.

Compare this to rents in the Bay Area. The average rent in San Francisco is $4,400 and it will not get you a three bedroom apartment. The median rent in the broader San Francisco Bay Area is around $3,500.

Buying a house is also cheaper in Spain, and depending where you buy it, exponentially cheaper.

A year ago, when I was considering buying an apartment in Manresa to rent it out, I talked with a real estate agent. She was offering me three bedroom apartments in the best neighborhood for €175,000.

You cannot even get a matchbox in the Bay Area for that price.

I’ve also been researching apartments in Valencia the last few weeks, and you can buy a two to three bedroom apartment in a nice neighborhood for €250,000 to €300,000.

Of course, a luxury apartment in Barcelona or Madrid could set you back one million euros or more, but that’s not what I am looking for.

Overall, there’s no doubt that housing would take a much smaller bite from our budget in Spain, no matter where we lived.

As per the cost of living in general, Expatistan calculates the monthly cost of living for a family of four as follows:

• Barcelona: €4,277

• Valencia: €3,717

• Santander: €3,128

This lines up pretty well with my anecdotical research. I asked several of my friends and relatives how much would we need to live comfortably in Spain. The fathers of two different families (three members each), said they lived well with €3,500/month.

We are only two people, so I figured we would do fairly well with €2,500 to €3,000 per month (around $2,900 to $3,500). In California this amount would not be enough to survive.

We analyzed Spain’s higher taxes last week. Would the difference in the cost of living compensate the higher tax burden?

According to friends who have moved to Spain from California, the lower cost of living does compensate the taxes paid.

For example, I know a couple who paid a wealth tax of €20,000 last year, yet their real estate taxes in Spain were only €300/year, while in California they had been paying $12,000/year. Also, the apartment they bought cost one fourth of what their house was worth in California, so they had much more disposable income than they would ever have in the US. Add the lower cost of living in Spain, and they still came out very much on top.

A big part of Spain’s charm is the social connection, and the fact that people spend a lot of time in the streets, meeting with friends at bars and cafes. Prices are so much lower than here, that you can easily do that without destroying your budget.

I also checked prices on certain items and services I use in the US. In general, they were 20% to 50% cheaper in Spain, sometimes more. For example, hiring a cleaning service, which I think is very helpful as we get older, is 50% cheaper (I compared what two of my sisters pay versus what I pay in California). Groceries were around 20% to 30% cheaper. Public transportation was more than 50% cheaper for retirees.

Not everything is more affordable in Spain, though. Gasoline is more expensive. Luxury services like a hair salon or a massage cost about the same, certain pharmacy items were more expensive or comparable, utilities are not cheap. But the biggest ticket items were definitely cheaper.

With our retiree income, living in the Bay Area will be possible but tight; we’ll always be scared about an unforeseen medical emergency that could break the bank. In Spain, we could live comfortably with the same income, and have extra resources for emergencies, to travel, to visit our son in the US every year, and to enjoy life.

AFFORDABILITY SCORE:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

TOTAL SCORE: SPAIN IS WINNING 12-7

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider subscribing or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Subscribe now

Buy me a coffee

Regulations

This may seem a weird topic. Who cares about regulations? And don’t Americans hate “government intervention,” “regulations” and “losing their freedom”?

Well, it turns out that I do care about regulations and I am all for the government protecting me and the rest of the citizenry from the excesses of corporations that only care about profit no matter who they harm.

Regulations are complex, so I will only give some examples about six topics that are pretty clear cut and have an impact on us every single day of our lives.

• Privacy

• Social Media

• Cosmetics

• Sustainability

• Artificial Intelligence

• Food

In all six aspects, the European Union has more stringent regulations than the US.

For example:

• The European Union bans more than 1,300 ingredients in cosmetics, because it considers them hazardous for our health. The United States only bans 11. That’s why a friend of mine told me the other day that whenever she travels to Europe, instead of bringing souvenirs she brings back toiletries.

• The European Union has established data privacy as a fundamental human right. The law is based in seven key principles, including minimizing the collection, storage and distribution of personal data. The sanctions for evading the law can go up to 20 million euros or 4% of a corporation’s annual business volume. The US has a more fragmented approach, with a law for medical data (HIPAA, perhaps the data most heavily regulated), another for financial data, etc. The application of the law is more lax with other types of personal data, such as its use by social media companies like Meta or X.

• The European Union has demanded that children under 16 years of age are banned from social media use and that social media companies establish more efficient ways to ascertain their users’ age. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has confirmed that the law will be adopted in Spain in the near future.

• The European Union and the US have very different approaches to AI. The United States is focused on accelerating innovation, building a robust infrastructure and becoming leaders in this field. By contrast, the European Union emphasizes that AI must be dependable, human-centered and respect fundamental rights, such as health, safety, democracy and the environment. The law imposes transparency frameworks for AI, and forbids using the technology for military or defense goals (the opposite of what the US is doing).

• The US prioritizes “freedom of expression” while Europe prioritizes protecting its citizens agains disinformation, hate content and scams. The European Digital Services Act includes transparency requirements for social media companies, demands that they explain their decisions, and requests that users have recourse to complain when content is eliminated. Donald Trump didn’t like that law and accused Europe of censuring freedom. I wonder why.

• The European Union is not shy when it comes to demanding accountability from some of the most powerful US companies. The EU has fined X 120 million euros for lack of transparency in the deceptive design of its blue “verification mark” as well as in their ads repository. They have also fined Meta for their addictive design on Instagram and Facebook.

• Although there’s some controversy around the amount of additives used in food by the US, with some sources citing 10,000 compared to 400 in the European Union, and other sources claiming that’s not true, there are certain aspects that are quite clear. US farmers use 72 pesticides that are banned in Europe. Additives and colorants in food commonly used in the US, such as potassium bromate, BHA, yellow dye #5 or Red 40, which can cause cancer and other health problems, are banned in Europe. In Europe GMOs (genetically modified foods) are highly restricted and regulated. In the US, they are widely used, especially in corn, soy or canola. The United States uses double the amount of antibiotics than the EU in their meat supply and the use of growth hormone for meat production, which is commonplace in the US, is banned in Europe. No wonder I felt so much better in Spain from the digestive issues I experience in the US. In general, we can say that the European Union has a proactive and preventative approach, while the US has a reactive and fragmented approach. The FDA only bans an ingredient in food when proven harmful, while the European Union does not approve any ingredient until proven safe.

Which one do you think protects its citizens better? I think the answer is clear.

REGULATIONS:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

TOTAL SCORE: SPAIN IS WINNING 13-7

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider subscribing or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Subscribe now

Buy me a coffee

Don’t miss the next article on Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Leave a comment

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Read Part 1, where you’ll find links to all the articles in the series. The score so far: Spain - 11 US - 6.

Taxes

You may have heard that Spain is more affordable than the US, or at least, than notoriously expensive states like California, where I live. We will talk about affordability in another article, but today I wanted to warn you that there is an aspect of Spain’s life that may greatly affect the money you thought you had for retirement, or even for living abroad with a US salary: taxes.

Taxes in Spain are not only higher than in the US, but as pointed out, “dealing with Hacienda just feels punitive, bureaucratic, and joyless.” (Hacienda is the Spanish equivalent to the IRS.) If you make a mistake the fines are considerable and the interest for not paying them on time grows exponentially day by day, so you’d better cross your T’s very carefully when you’re doing your taxes.

Aside from that, taxes vary in the different autonomies (regions) so you need to research the fiscal system in the autonomy you plan to move to as well. I know people who have changed their destination to avoid sky high wealth taxes in a certain region.

Also, taxes will affect each individual or family very differently depending on their type of income sources, accumulated wealth, and yearly finances, so my advice is that you consult with a lawyer or an accountant that specializes on international tax laws and who advises expats well before you leave the US, so they can explain the best options for you and your family.

I have been doing some research on this topic and I understand a few things clearly, while others remain a mystery.

Here I will give some information which I am certain is true for Spain.

If you’re considering a different country, make sure to study the tax laws there as well.

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buy me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel warm and cozy!

Upgrade now

Buy me a coffee

I want to point out as well that I am torn about this topic. I am pro-taxes. I do believe that we all need to pay our fair share to support roads’ maintenance, public transportation, police, firefighters and more. In Spain, higher taxes are what make free universal health care possible, among other social support systems which I wish existed in the US. (Perhaps most people wouldn’t even consider uprooting themselves and starting from scratch in a different country if such support system existed here.)

That said, it stings to think that I’ve been living in the US for more than half my life, paid my taxes here, and saved what I could for my retirement, only to move to a country where the money I saved will be taxed heavily, even though I have not enjoyed any of its social services for the last 34 years.

What is more, we are not wealthy. If we were millionaires and were paying high taxes, we would still have more than enough to live comfortably, but moving to Spain expecting a more affordable life only to find that it’s not so much the case because taxes are bleeding us dry gives me pause.

Each potential expat will need to weigh their willingness to contribute to their new country —which I believe in— with their level of comfort using strategies to reduce their taxes while still being on the right side of the law.

Okay, let’s get started with what I know. I’ll structure it as a Q & A, with questions I asked myself.

¿When do I become a fiscal resident?

It’s not the same thing to be a legal resident of Spain than to be a fiscal resident. You can have a visa to reside in the country and still not be obliged to pay taxes there. For example, as a US citizen, you will need a visa to stay more than 90 days, and you’ll reside there legally, but you will not become a fiscal resident if you only stay four or five months.

The magical boundary is 183 days in a calendar year. As far as you live in Spain for less than 183 days, you will not need to declare taxes there. This comes in handy if you want to experience the country through long-term stays for two or three years, perhaps living in different cities to choose your preferred one before you make a final commitment. As far as you don’t cross that boundary, you’ll be fine.

There are some exceptions to this rule: If you live in Spain less than 183 days a year but your main economic interests are in Spain, the government could consider you a fiscal resident. Also, if you stay less than 183 days but your family lives there a whole year or more —let’s say that you send your kid abroad for high school and your partner moves to Spain with the kid while you stay in the US— you could also be considered a fiscal resident.

But in general, the 183 days boundary keeps you out of Hacienda’s tax returns.

An important note: even if you become a permanent resident of Spain mid-year, for example, you become a resident on July 2027, Hacienda will consider you a Spain’s fiscal resident from January 1st 2027. This has crucial implications.

Consider this: If you sell your house in the US in March and move to Spain in July, the earnings from the house sale will be taxed in Spain, as well as in the US. That’s why a tax advisor may tell you to sell your house one year (let’s say at the end of 2027) and not become a resident of Spain until the next calendar year (2028).

Do I need to file in both countries?

Yes. You will need to file taxes in the US as well as in Spain, even when you are a resident of Spain. That’s because the US has a citizenship-based taxation system, meaning your taxes obligations follow your passport, not your residency.

Spain will tax your worldwide income, which means it will tax any money you earn in the US or that comes from US pensions or investments, as well as any money you make in Spain if you are still working.

Does that mean I will pay twice for the same income?

Not exactly. Spain and the US have a tax treaty to avoid double taxation on dividends, interests, capital gains and pensions, yet it doesn’t work the same way for every source of income (see more below).

Generally, your worldwide income will be first taxed in Spain. If the money you pay to Hacienda is less than what you would pay in the US for that income, you will need to pay that difference in the US. Yet, Spain’s taxes are higher than US’s taxes, so most often you will only pay Spanish taxes.

You say Spanish taxes are higher. What are its income tax brackets?

Let’s start by saying that Spain uses a progressive tax system. That means that you pay different rates for different portions of your income. The more income you earn, the higher your tax bracket, and that’s where the difference with the US is more noticeable, since the highest incomes are much more heavily taxed.

Here is a basic chart of tax brackets for single payers, combining national and regional portions, which I pulled from a creditable source:

Taxable income in Euros (and Dollars) Tax Rate

€0- €12,450 ($0-$13,600) — 19%

€12,450-€20,200 ($13,600-$22,100) — 24%

€20,200-€35,200 ($22,100-38,500) — 30%

€35,200-€60,000 ($38,500-$65,600) — 37%

€60,000-€300,000 ($65,600-$328,000) — 45%

Over €300,000 (over $328,000) — 47%

If you have a nice Social Security check and saved your a$% off throughout your career in a 401K or an IRA, and you are forced to take distributions after 73 years old, you may well get over $65,000 a year.

In the US, with a federal standard deduction for single seniors of more than $15,000 and having portions of your Social Security check taken out for Medicare and for taxes before you even get the money, you may end up paying very little or nothing in taxes when you file.

In Spain, though, getting $65,000 per year from your pensions and investments puts you in the 45% bracket. Seniors also get tax deductions in Spain, which grow annually with your age, but they are less generous. They may get you to a lower tax bracket, but the next one down is still high, at 37%.

Are all sources of income taxed the same way for retirees?

No. Here are some basics:

• Public pensions (from working for the state or the federal government): They only pay taxes in the country of origin, in this case the US. That’s great, but please note that this income still counts towards the progressive taxation system in Spain. That is, if you get a check from social security, another from a public pension, and distributions from your 401K, the public pension income will not be taxed in Spain, yet the amount will be added to your other two sources of income to calculate your tax bracket for those two (not great). Now, if you get Spanish nationality, Spain could tax exclusively your public pension.

• Private pensions: In theory you pay taxes only in the country of residence (Spain), but the US has a special clause that allows it to retain taxes on your private pensions as a non resident. Still, what you pay in the US will be deducted from the taxes owed in Spain as per the double taxation treaty.

• All other sources of income —rental properties in the US, dividends, interests, capital gains, etcetera— can be taxed in both countries, although avoiding double taxation as per the treaty. You would pay taxes in Spain first (higher income brackets).

• Spain applies progressive capital gains tax for residents, while non residents are taxed at flat rates. Rates go from 19% (up to €6,000) to 28% (over €300,000), so they are higher than the flat 15% rate in the US if you get more than €6,000/year in capital gains.

• You are obliged to declare any kind of assets you have in the US over $50,000, including bank accounts, stocks, securities/investments and real estate. It’s done through the form called Modelo 720. Penalties for not filing this form or filing it incorrectly are stiff. Depending on the autonomy, if you have over a certain income, you will pay wealth taxes. For example, in the Valencian community, a couple who has more than 1.2 million dollars in worldwide assets (including the value of real estate properties) will pay a wealth tax, which can be quite hefty.

There is still a lot more that I haven’t covered, especially for people who are not retirees. You’ll find some information about that in the sources listed at the end of the article.

As you can see, this is an extremely complicated topic, which is why I highly recommend that you consult with an expert at least one or two years BEFORE you move to another country.

Some of the strategies they may recommend might include:

• Move and become a legal resident at the beginning of a calendar year, so you are not taxed on potentially high earnings the previous year in your country of origin (from the sale of a house or your last year with an employee salary, for example).

• Check how the double taxation treaty will apply to your sources of income. An advisor may tell you to start receiving a source of income after you move to take advantage of better fiscal laws or, on the contrary, they may advise you to get a lump sum from your IRA in the US before you move (and pay US taxes) so you don’t have to pay higher taxes on that money in Spain.

• Consult the inheritance laws in both countries. If you have some money or assets you’d want to leave for your children, it may be beneficial to keep some assets in the US or to give them to your beneficiaries before you move, because the US has an exemption up to 13 million dollars for inheritance, while in Spain the beneficiary pays taxes from 7% to 36% (there is much variation depending on the region).

• Consult the tax laws in each autonomy (region) because they are very different. Some regions have a high wealth tax and higher income taxes than others. Generally, Madrid, Andalucia and Galicia have lower taxes for residents, while Catalonia and the Valencian community have the highest.

Given the possibility that you may end up having less money than you anticipated for retirement due to higher taxes in Spain, in this match the US wins.

TAXES:

US: 1

SPAIN: 0

TOTAL SCORE: SPAIN 11 - US: 7

Sources:

• 5 reasons why everyone complains about the tax man

• Guía fiscal para jubilados extranjeros en España

• Lo que los expatriados estadounidenses que viven en España deben saber sobre los impuestos en los Estados Unidos

• Hacienda’s guide for US residents in Spain

• Income Taxation According to the Double Taxation Agreement Between USA and Spain

• Taxes for Expats: Capital Gains Tax in Spain

• Worldwide Tax Summaries: Spain — Individual Taxes on Personal Income

• US Expat Tax Guide: Americans Living in Spain

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel warm and cozy!

Upgrade now

Buy me a coffee

Don’t miss the next installment next Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Read Part 1, where you’ll find links to all the articles in the series. The score so far: Spain - 8 US - 3.5.

After a couple of research intensive and serious pieces about politics and climate change, I thought I would lighten the mood and talk about something still important but less essential to our physical and mental survival: leisure.

My husband and I will never fully retire. I am a writer, a career that has no expiration date, and he’s a radio producer and broadcaster of Latin music programs, which is also non perishable. Even if we slow down as we age, we both write and work in music because we love it, so we will probably always have some project cooking.

Still, once we don’t work for a company or for clients, we will have a good amount of time off to enjoy life. That means that wherever we live, ideally we will have easy access to the activities we like most: movies (in an actual theater), live music, art exhibits and travel are priorities. (We also enjoy food, and Spain clearly won in that category, and nature, which I will discuss in a different article.)

If you’re considering a move to a different country, it’s important to think what you will do with your time. You don’t want to arrive there and find yourself bored to tears.

Cinema

When I was 5 or 6 years old I started going to the movies with my siblings every Sunday during the three summer months. The theater was in the little town where we spent our vacations. It always showed two kid-appropriate movies.

My in-laws also took my husband to the movies every week, usually to see three films at once. They didn’t pay attention to R-rated categories, so he saw adult movies like Antonioni’s Blow up when he was around 12. It made an impression!

As teens and young adults we both kept watching movies steadily, each in our own country. I often went alone to watch double features in the many independent theaters in Barcelona at the time. My favorites were the Casablanca and the Verdi. We became cinema buffs.

Today, trying to go to a movie is a frustrating experience in the US. Most small independent theaters have closed in the Bay Area, and the remaining multiplexes all play the same fare: action, horror, super heroes, or kids movies. If you are a fan of these genres, you are in luck. I am not. (My husband loves horror flicks and enjoys super heroes and action movies occasionally.)

Worst than the paltry offering is the fact that movies in the US all seem cut by the same cloth. They follow a predictable pattern: lots of crashes, violence, special effects or sappy tearjerkers. Often you know how the movie is going to end from the beginning. It’s rare that we find a flick so enticing that is worth the expense of going to the theater. And let’s not even talk about the unending ads and trailers.

Occasionally you get a great flick, like Parasite or Nomadland, but they are few and far between.

In contrast, we saw seven movies in the four and half weeks we spent in Spain, most of them interesting and original dramas or comedies, the kind you used to see in the US a few years back.

That’s because in Spain (and in France) you get to see movies from all of Europe as well as from other continents, that never make it to US theaters. You find the American blockbusters as well, and in a small city like Manresa they are the primary listings, but in a big city like Barcelona and Valencia blockbusters are only a drop in the bucket.

In my opinion, European movies, as well as cinema from Asia, Latin America and Africa, tend to be much better than the current American productions. They engage you, they move you, the make you think, or laugh or smile, they surprise you.

Aside from the quality, the quantity is significant. We had a smorgasbord of choices every day. Theaters like the Verdi, which still exists in the same location in the Gracia neighborhood, play as many as 15 different movies in a week, some of them only at certain times and days. And if there are any ads (some cinemas don’t have any) it’s only one and perhaps one or two trailers.

What is more, on Tuesdays tickets cost only €2 for retirees, so enjoying movies is cheap and satisfying. There’s even a theater in Barcelona, Cinema Maldá, which allows you to see the three different movies they are playing each day for the price of one ticket.

We were in cinema heaven. So, without doubt, Spain takes it by the storm.

CINEMA

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 9. US- 3.5

Live Latin music

This topic is very specific to us and probably very different for you, but perhaps there is a different cultural offer in the US that you partake in regularly and that it’s really important to you.

As I mentioned, my husband has been a Latin music radio producer and broadcaster in the Bay Area for over 50 years.

His current program, Con Sabor, reaches all of Northern California and worldwide through kpfa.org and has been running for 27 years. Aside from playing great music —salsa, Latin jazz, AfroCuban, AfroCaribbean— he has always supported the Latin music scene in the Bay Area by interviewing musicians that come out with a CD or international and local artists that play a concert.

We are blessed in the Bay Area with a very strong line up of Latin music salsa bands as well as with frequent concerts by renowned international artists. I don’t exaggerate when I say that he goes to hear live Latin music almost every week, sometimes twice a week.

Add to that that he is well known in local Latin music circles and has a wide network of fans and friends in this world. Whenever I go to a concert with him, he says hi right and left to friends and acquaintances and, if the musicians are local artists, they will often mention him and thank him from the stage for his support.

Last but not least, Luis has a handful of close friends who are as crazy about Latin music as he is. As much as I love salsa, these days I’m not always up for going out at night, driving one hour to San Francisco and coming home late unless it’s a band I haven’t seen before. But he always has someone he can invite to go with him.

Latin music is my husband’s passion and an enormous part of his life, both as radio producer and concert goer. He would lose this world if we moved to Spain.

There are live Latin music concerts in big cities in Spain occasionally, but definitely not weekly, and the tickets are expensive, so perhaps we could not attend everything we wanted. Similarly, we also love jazz, flamenco and other types of music, but tickets in Spain are not cheap, so we wouldn’t have a steady serving of live music.

When I left Barcelona in 1992, salsa was very popular and there were several clubs that played salsa every night, where you would find me often. Usually they had a DJ during the week, and sometimes live local bands on the weekends.

This scene seems to have evaporated. Although there are many enthusiasts of salsa dancing that are extremely proficient, they usually dance to DJs, not live bands, and there are less clubs dedicated to salsa than there were before.

I know for my husband this lack would be deeply felt, so on this topic the Bay Area wins hands down.

LIVE LATIN MUSIC

US: 1

SPAIN: 0

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 9. US - 4.5

Art

One of our favorite outings in the Bay Area is spending a day in a museum in San Francisco to see a new exhibit.

We love retrospectives, when you get to see a hefty body of work by an artist and observe their evolution. Sometimes we’ll go to an exhibit by an artist we know nothing about and enjoy a delightful discovery. We also love exhibits about fashion and photography.

We like getting to the museum in the morning, spending a couple of hours seeing the exhibit, grabbing a bite to eat in the cafeteria and exploring another exhibit. Or, if we are only interested in one, we’ll have lunch outside and go for a walk in some park or neighborhood in the city.

San Francisco has a few museums that often offer this type of retrospective, especially the DeYoung, the Legion of Honor and the Museum of Modern Art. But you also have enticing smaller museums in the Bay Area such as the Asian Museum, the Oakland Museum of Art, and art galleries abound.

You can also find a robust art scene in Spain’s big cities. While we were in Valencia we visited a couple of museums that not only had beautiful exhibits but the buildings themselves were a work of art, with their foundations dating from Roman times on display.

Perhaps Spain has a slight advantage, because it’s easy, fast and relatively cheap to reach other cities like Madrid via a two or three hour ride in the high speed rail, while in the US if you want to visit a museum in New York and you live in California you need to fly and spend much more money on the trip and the lodging than you would in Spain.

Overall, though, I think this aspect brings our first tie.

ART

US: 1

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 10. US - 5.5

Travel

You can travel as much from the US as from Spain but the ease, the prices and the options available are quite different, and it will depend on what type of travel you like the most.

One of the beauties of the US is its vastness and the spectacular scale of its nature. So if your thing is visiting amazing natural parks, you probably will be happier in the US, where you have many incredible destinations, from Yosemite and the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone or Denali.

That’s not to say that the parks and the scenery in Spain aren’t beautiful. They are. But the diversity of views and experiences in the US, due to the enormous size and natural variety of this country, is unparalleled.

If you like to visit different cultures and cities, though, I think Spain takes it home. That’s because not only Spain offers a remarkable diversity in itself, with five different languages, and clearly differentiated landscapes, traditions, food and urban experiences, but because Spain is next door to an amazing array of countries and cultures.

We are not only talking about Europe, but also Africa and Asia, which are much closer from Spain than from the US. For example, a flight from San Francisco to Egypt lasts almost 14 hours and it’s prohibitively expensive. From Barcelona, though, it’s only five hours and cheaper.

You may say that Central and Latin America are closer from the US than from Spain and you will be right. But “closer,” when we’re talking about the US, is relative due to its size.

A flight from San Francisco to Lima, Peru, for example, takes between 11 and 14 hours depending on the layover (there are no direct flights). From Barcelona to Peru (with direct flights) is 13 hours. So even though you are much farther away, the trip distance is not significantly bigger.

Mostly, as we grow older, we will prefer shorter flights or other ways of traveling that are not by plane. Spain offers us the possibility to travel to all of Europe in two or three hour flights, which are very affordable, so travel to discover different cultures and countries is easier and cheaper. You can also travel by train throughout the whole continent, which is an attractive option.

You are also closer to other continents, and if money allows, you can consider a vacation in Morocco or in Tunisia, for example, with easier access than from the US.

We also plan to visit the US regularly if we move to Spain because our son will stay here, so we would still have opportunities to travel to natural parks we haven’t seen or to other states and cities.

For ease and affordability of travel to other countries, Spain fits the bill. And for us, that’s enticing, so I will score 1 goal for Spain, and 0.5 to the US due especially to its amazing national parks.

TRAVEL

US: 0.5

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINING: SPAIN - 11 US - 6.

Don’t miss the next installment next Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Upgrade

Buy me a coffee

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Part 1 discusses transportation, shopping and walking. Part 2 discusses food (eating out and eating in). Part 3 discusses traffic and noise pollution, mass tourism, water and smells. Part 4 discusses social connection, aging in society and safety. Part 5 discusses politics. The score so far: Spain - 8 US - 2.5.

Today’s article deals with a complicated topic. I’ll do my best to explain it clearly. I am not an expert but I’ve done quite a lot of research. I hope this is helpful.

Climate change and global warming

A study by the Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index states that from 1995 to 2024 the frequency and intensity of storms, floods, heatwaves and droughts intensified with devastating consequences: 832,000 fatalities, more than 9,700 extreme weather events, and 4.5 trillion dollars lost worldwide. The most affected countries were in the global south, but we are feeling the effects of climate change all over the world.

Not every place, however, is affected with the same intensity and frequency and not every country is equally prepared to face the consequences of climate change.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body responsible for assessing climate science, approximately an average of 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels is already locked in with cascading consequences, from more extreme weather events and sea-level rise to ecosystem disruption.

This means that climate adaptation is now essential for survival and resilience.

While mitigation focuses on reducing future emissions, adaptation centers on adjusting systems and infrastructure to manage the impacts of climate change. Examples of adaptation can be working with the natural world, such as restoring marshes and forests to decrease the risk of floods and erosion, or working on infrastructure, like building houses with fire resistant materials or installing air conditioning systems to fight extreme heat.

The IPCC evaluated vulnerability to climate change (country’s exposure and sensitivity to climate-related hazards) and readiness to adapt in 185 countries and concluded that these are the countries best prepared to adapt effectively:

• Norway

• Finland

• Switzerland

• Denmark

• Sweden

• Singapore

• New Zealand

• United Kingdom

• Germany

• Australia

Six of those countries are in Europe, but as you can see, Spain is not in the list (neither is the US).

We’ve all heard about the heat wave that affected Europe last week, especially France and Spain, with devastating consequences. More than 1,000 people died in France in a week due to heat-related conditions.

This was the second severe heat wave in Europe this year, and summer has just started.

Southern European countries are not ready to face extreme heat. Few houses have air conditioning. Most were built to protect against the cold, so they retain heat. That’s why thousands of people die in Europe when there is a heat wave.

According to the New York Times (gift article), Europe is warming faster than the rest of the world for a variety of reasons, including the decrease of snow cover, which makes the land absorb more radiation, and shifts in the patterns of atmospheric circulation.

Perversely, one of the reasons Europe is warming faster than other parts of the world is that pollution has been reduced and the improved air has fewer particles called aerosols in the sky to deflect sunlight back into space.

Temperatures in mainland Spain in particular have increased by 3.27°C between 1971 and 2022, a much higher degree of global warming than the world average and the Mediterranean average of 1.58°C, stated experts at the Universitat Politécnica de Catalonia (UPV).

In their UPV’s 2024 study, they connected the increase in temperature to the decrease in rainfall. The study projects that Spain’s climate could shift from Mediterranean to steppe or desert-like by 2050.

Even if this scary shift is not completed until close to 2050, we are already clearly feeling the effects of global warming. Summers start earlier, last longer and are hotter, and heat waves are more frequent. From 1971 to 2022, the study explained, summer days —temperature above 25 °C or 77 °F— have increased 43% in Spain, from 82.4 days to 117.9.

Add that in many parts of Spain (like Barcelona and Valencia) the humidity is high, and the temperature may not drop much at night during the summer. This, united to the lack of AC, can make you quite miserable.

That’s me in Barcelona during a very hot summer day.

Of course, you can always install AC in your apartment, at least in Spain (in France the laws about maintaining the historic facades are so strict, in many cases an AC unit is not allowed). Unfortunately, electricity is very expensive in Spain, so if your AC is cranking day and night your bill will go through the roof.

Subscribe now

As the summer days keep growing and the heat waves become more frequent, you risk having to spend all day at home for months at a time to escape the torridness.

This is no different than what happens today in some parts of the United States during the summer, like Arizona or New Mexico, but houses and public buildings in the US are better built to stand the heat and AC is ubiquitous.

Aside from that, each individual has its personal preference and level of tolerance for heat and AC. I happen to have a fairly low tolerance to both, as well as to cold (I might be quite unhappy living in a place that has snow several months of the year).

I suffer from silent reflux, which means acid reflux often goes to my throat even though I don’t feel the sourness, and it damages my vocal cords. Having fragile vocal cords makes me very sensitive to AC. If I am close to an AC source for a sustained period of time, for example during a long car ride, I get hoarse.

I moved to my current city, Vallejo, in part to escape the hot summers and the constant AC in my previous city, which is only 20 minutes away by car, but much hotter because it’s inland.

When you are considering a move to a new country, it’s important in my opinion to take into account climate change and to get pretty granular researching specific locations.

Perhaps you’ve heard the famous quote “The coldest winter I’ve ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,” wrongly attributed to Mark Twain. The quote’s author may be wrong but the sentence is true. The warm waters coming from Hawaii meet the cold Pacific coast and the result is a heavy layer of fog from May to October, which acts as a natural air conditioner.

A typical San Francisco summer day will have fog until at least noon, a few hours of sun, and fog again from 4 or 5 pm on. Sometimes the fog stays all day long. My brother, his wife and their kids came to visit us in August one time and they could never see the famous Golden Gate because it was covered in fog all day long for two weeks straight.

The fog cools the air, and sometimes makes it truly cold. Many tourists are forced to buy sweatshirts and sweatpants because they arrive in t-shirts and shorts and freeze their a$&es off. That’s why you always need to carry layers of clothes in the summer, because you may be in short sleeves at 2 pm and in a sweater and jacket at 8 pm.

Vallejo is also by the water, but on the North Bay. That means we also get quite a lot of fog, although not as much as in San Francisco. We usually get grey skies in the morning but not in the evenings. The evenings are lovely here. And we also get a LOT of wind, because the city sits at the entrance of the Carquinez Strait, which acts as a wind tunnel.

During very hot summer days —we get a few of those— the house usually stays reasonably cool until 3 or 4 pm. Then you may need to turn on the AC for two or three hours (although I avoid it as much as I can), but by 6 or 7pm, the cool breeze often allows you to turn it off, open all the windows, and let the house freshen naturally. As an example, up to now I’ve turned the AC on two days for a couple of hours only.

Meanwhile, Spaniards have been baking in two heat waves for several days with no relief, and just regularly hot the rest of the time. I check the weather in several Spanish cities regularly and even cities in the north, like Santander, was over 90°F. Vallejo has stayed at 72-74°F pretty much all June.

Furthermore, I consulted prediction maps (you can find the links in this ABC News article) and discovered that my specific location had low risk of floods, fires or extreme heat in the near to mid-term future.

Of course these predictions can be wrong, and things are also changing in the Bay Area.

By 2050 the annual mean temperature, according to research, could increase 4.4°F, which will definitely be hard, but perhaps coastal areas in the Bay will be less affected, as they are now.

The fog is also diminishing. From 1950 until 2021 the Bay Area lost an average of three hours of fog per day during the foggy season (May to October). It went from 14.6 hours to 9.4.

So things won’t be rosy here, but I think they will be more manageable than, say, in Barcelona, especially in my location and in a house that runs naturally cold and has air conditioning.

For this very specific reason (aka, a granular location) I feel like Spain loses the climate change “match,” although the fixation of the current administration with destroying clean energy projects and going back to fossil fuels may change things dramatically in the next few years. We will see.

Doing research on this topic has made me change the way I envision a potential move to Spain. I am now thinking that perhaps it would be wiser to rent an apartment there instead of buying one and to keep some real estate exit strategy in the US.

We cannot support financially owning two properties, but if we rent an apartment in Spain and get a tenant for our house here, perhaps we could make it work.

Lots to think about.

CLIMATE CHANGE:

US: 1 (reluctantly, because we still have many consequences of climate change, such as fires)

SPAIN: 0

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 8 US - 3.5

Don’t miss the next installment next Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Upgrade

Boy me a coffee

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Part 1 discusses transportation, shopping and walking. Part 2 discusses food (eating out and eating in). Part 3 discusses traffic and noise pollution, mass tourism, water and smells. Part 4 discusses social connection, aging in society and safety. The score so far: Spain - 7 US - 2.5.

Politics

In 2025 a record number of Americans left the US. According to the Brookings Institution, between 210,00 and 405,000 people left the country voluntarily last year. It’s the first time in 50 years that more people left than came, which has serious economic implications.

In a survey of 600 attendees to a conference run by Expatsy, a company which organizes relocation tours and provides advice for Americans considering a move abroad, 89% said they wanted to leave the US for political reasons (a lust for adventure and affordability were the next two factors).

Several of my friends and acquaintances are in this category: they have already moved or they are planning to move because they can’t stand the political reality of this country.

Can you blame them?

The fascism, racism, runaway corruption, cruelty, campaign of retribution, and inefficiency of the current administration have pushed many citizens to despair. It’s only human to wish to escape chaos —not to speak of the rampant inflation.

Yet, it’s important to take a step back and examine this issue as objectively as possible. Are there any reasons to tough it out, even if you can’t stomach what’s happening here?

Some people argue that if you are not MAGA, it’s more important than ever to stay in the US and contribute to the resistance. Others point to the midterms this November, which could bring a blue wave that thwarts Trump’s agenda for his remaining two years.

Also, administrations come and go. Should you uproot your whole life for what’s happening now and find that two years later things have turned around and you could have stayed, if only you were willing to hope and wait a bit longer?

Let’s add that the grass is not always greener on the other side, even if it looks that way from afar. Spain right now has similar levels of polarization between the right and the left as the US, with vitriolic accusations from both sides filling newspapers headlines daily.

The country is also in the middle of a corruption scandal affecting several key figures tied to the party in power, the center left PSOE. has called it “the Spanish Watergate.” Although Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has not been directly implicated (yet), his former right hand, his wife, his brother and the former (and revered by the left) Prime Minister Zapatero, among several others, are battling lawsuits in court, mainly for influence peddling.

Furthermore, the Conservative Party Partido Popular is rising, sometimes by allying itself with the extreme right wing VOX in order to win votes or form majorities in autonomous governments.

That’s why when I think about politics, even though what’s happening in the US scares me, I try to observe the issue through a wider lens: does democracy have a foundation stable enough to help the country resist strong headwinds?

I try to answer this question in this article, comparing Spain’s democracy to the US’s democracy. (I get a little wonky, so bear with me.)

I had never heard of American exceptionalism or the claim that America’s democracy was a model for the world before I came here in 1992. And when I heard about it, I couldn’t believe it. A model democracy? Whaaaaat???

Mind you, I was coming from a country that had lived through almost 40 years of dictatorship, and had finally conquered democracy and approved a constitution in 1978, a political and cultural transition that shaped my life. My first-hand experience told me that Spain’s democracy, even though it was much younger than the US’s, had a stronger foundation.

Subscribe now

There are three main reasons that make me think America’s democracy cannot bring about the truly in-depth change needed for a fairer society, or at least, that it won’t happen anytime soon.

(Disclaimer: I am not a political analyst, so I may be pissing out of the pot, but these thoughts have been rattling in my mind for a long time.)

Electoral College:

My main gripe with the Electoral College in the US, which elects the President, is that it obliterates the “one voice-one vote” that is the hallmark of a true democratic system. The “winner-take-all” rule —if a candidate wins only one more vote than the opposition in one state, the electors vote for this candidate— effectively discards the vote and will of millions of people. When you add up all the votes that have been discarded through this system, it can happen that a candidate wins the Electoral College but loses the popular vote (as happened during the first Trump presidency).

How is that democratic?

It also gives disproportionate weight to states that have small populations, since every state gets a minimum of two electoral votes no matter what. For example, Wyoming has an elector for every 182,283 residents, while California has an elector for every 728,000 residents, so voters from Wyoming have more representation per elector. This system gives a big advantage to less populated and rural states, which lean heavily Republican.

The result of these two factors is that political candidates focus their campaigns in swing states, not in those that lean clearly for either Democrats or Republicans and that voters in those neglected states often feel less inclined to vote, since they assume their party will win even without their vote. I have heard my own son say, “Why should I vote? The result will be the same anyway.” (Let me tell you, I do not put up with this nonsense. Having grown up under a dictatorship, I consider voting a sacred duty no matter what.)

In contrast, Spain doesn’t have an electoral college. People vote for political parties, and the winning party that forms government (with either a simple or absolute majority) elects the Prime Minister.

The Spanish electoral system is complicated because it’s based on 50 constituencies (the provinces) and it doesn’t follow the same norms for the Senate and the Congress.

For the Senate, it follows a majority-based approach: the party list that receives the most votes in a constituency secures 75% of the votes, while the second-highest list receives 25% of the votes. It’s not exactly one voice-one vote, but at least it doesn’t fully discard millions of votes.

For Congress, which really has most of the power since it’s the camera that forms the government and passes laws, Spain has a semi-proportional system. A proportional system is an electoral system that elects representatives in proportion to the number of people who vote for them. If one third of voters back a political party, the party’s candidates win roughly one-third of the seats. It’s the closest system to one voice-one vote.

But Spanish elections for congress have two major quirks:

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Upgrade

Buy me a coffee

First, Spain, much like the US, has an imbalance in the proportion of residents per seat in Congress, since each of the 50 constituencies (provinces) gets a minimum of two seats. Therefore, in scarcely populated areas, such as Soria, 25,000 votes get a seat, while in Madrid’s each seat requires more than 100,000 votes; therefore voters in Soria have more weight than those in Madrid.

Since both major political parties have a strong presence in smaller and rural provinces, so far this system has not majorly benefited one over the other as it happens in the US. As a consequence, parties do not focus their attention exclusively in certain constituencies during electoral campaigns, as it happens here with swing states.

Furthermore, gerrymandering is not possible in Spain, because the boundaries of the 50 constituencies or provinces are enshrined by law since 1978.

Second, Spain has a multiparty system, but parties only get representation in a constituency if they gain at least 3% of the vote, which means that very small parties are effectively shut out of representation. Yet, other parties outside of the two major (PSOE and PP) do get sizable representation and can be very influential.

There are many who want to change Spain’s electoral system to increase proportionality, but it remains to be seen when and if that will happen.

In general, though, the fact that the electoral system is based on direct representation and not on an Electoral College which discards all the votes in the minority, no matter how small the gap with the majority is; the fact that gerrymandering doesn’t exist; and the fact that representation is semi-proportional ensures that the Spanish system is more democratic.

Elections Funding:

The 2010 Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling enabled corporations and wealthy donors in the US to spend unlimited money on elections. Restrictions on this political spending, the ruling stated, equated to limiting their free speech and therefore violated the First Amendment. Much of that funding comes through super PACs that keep the sources anonymous.

The result: elections are decided by special interest groups that practically buy politicians in exchange of future influence and favors. Or, in other words, our electoral system in the US is in the hands of oligarchs.

By contrast, Spain has strict restrictions on how to fund elections, which are clearly articulated by the law (Ley Orgánica 8/2007). Eighty percent of the funding for political parties comes from the federal government (through citizens’ taxes). The government gives money proportionate to the amount of votes and seats each party won in the last election.

The remaining 20% comes from private donations, which can be local governments, membership fees and individual donors. Individual donors can only give a maximum of €50,000 per year and any amount above €25,000 needs to be disclosed by the party to the government. Donations cannot be anonymous and donations by legal entities (aka, corporations) are strictly prohibited.

All donations are in bank accounts specifically set up for that purpose to increase transparency. An independent auditor reviews all political parties’ financing. Donations by people or companies associated with any government contract are forbidden.

The reasoning behind all these regulations and restrictions is spelled clearly in the introduction to the Law (translation is mine):

“The exercise of popular sovereignty requires that ultimate political control over democratically elected institutions rests with the citizen; it is therefore essential to establish safeguards and additional measures to ensure that the financing system does not introduce distortions between the popular will and the exercise of political power.

The freedom of political parties to carry out their functions would be compromised if a model of total liberalization were permitted as a financing method; such an approach would cast doubt on the influence that contributions from specific funding sources might exert on particular political decisions, thereby undermining the role of political parties as institutions that channel the formation of the popular will.”

Obviously, that doesn’t mean the system functions perfectly. In Spain there is a saying: “Hecha la ley, hecha la trampa” (“Every law has its loophole.”). There are some loopholes that can be abused such as donations in kind (real estate, etc.), or donations to the political parties’ foundations, which don’t have restrictions and are often used to fund events, conferences, etcetera.

But on the whole, the financing of elections in Spain avoids the gross cronyism that corrupts American elections because the law clearly states that political parties must enter elections under equal financing terms that are transparent and independent from special interests.

Perhaps you hope that one day Citizens United will be overruled in the US. You might be waiting a very long time. As far as we don’t have terms limits in the Supreme Court and the Court continues to be majority conservative this is not going to happen. Perhaps it will never happen.

In this area, Spain clearly wins.

Subscribe now

Multiparty System:

The US is a two-party system. Third parties rarely achieve representation and to change that seems almost impossible due to the extreme polarization we live in. Any attempt by a third party candidate is considered almost “treason,” as it takes votes from one of the two major parties in extremely close elections.

In contrast, Spain has two major parties —the center-left socialist party or PSOE and the conservative party Partido Popular or PP— but it also has other important parties with representatives in Congress and the Senate.

As mentioned before, parties need to get 3% of the vote to get representation. In the beginning of the democratic process, it was the nationalist parties (Catalan and Basque above all), that got over that threshold, as well as the communist party. Nowadays there are more parties, both on the left and the right, that get meaningful representation, including the extreme right wing party VOX.

Since our first democratic election post-Franco dictatorship in Spain, there have been seventeen national governments. Only four of them were formed with absolute majority. The rest required one of the two major parties forming coalitions or negotiating with one or more of the smaller parties in order to govern.

I think this is a healthier way to run a democracy, because it makes sure that those represented by smaller parties have a voice in Congress and the Senate, and the major parties are forced to listen to it.

I wish third parties were viable in the US.

For all the reasons stated above, I believe that democracy in Spain, even though much younger than democracy in the US, is much closer to fair representation of the will of the citizens and has a stronger foundation that make it more difficult to slide into fascism. After all, we have lived under a dictatorship before, so we know the consequences and most Spaniards are not eager to get back to it. Hence the score:

POLITICS:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 8. US - 2.5

Don’t miss the next installment next Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Leave a comment

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Part 1 discusses transportation, shopping and walking. Part 2 discusses food (eating out and eating in). Part 3 discusses traffic and noise pollution, mass tourism, water and smells. The score so far: Spain - 4. US - 2.5.

Social connection

When you get to Spain, no matter the size of the city or town, one thing is immediately obvious: people live very social lives, a lot of it on the streets.

Studies have shown that Spain has more restaurants and bars than any other country in the world: one per 175 people.

And let me tell you: Spaniards use those establishments a LOT. In the early morning many people have breakfast in their neighborhood cafe before going to work. This is not a drive through Starbucks shitty coffee run. It’s a sit down, good espresso and waiter-knows-you-by-name type of experience.

Mid-morning, seniors meet for lively chats; midday, workers enjoy the menú del día during their lunch break (which is still two hours for many jobs); afternoons are for coffee or beer with friends if your schedule permits, and evenings for dinner and/or drinks after dinner at home. It doesn’t matter if it’s a weekday or a weekend: terraces and bars are always packed.

It’s so wonderful to be in this vibrant environment, where the streets and the plazas always carry the sound of conversation and laughter. You can find lively neighborhoods in certain areas of San Francisco or any other major city in the US, but once you get out of the fashionable spots or the downtown streets, most cities are pretty much dead after 6 or 7 pm, the rows of homes carefully guarding the private lives inside.

The proliferation of bars and restaurants in Spain —and their wonderful terraces— is possible because the prices are affordable and the weather is mild most of the year. Most importantly, Spaniards love social connection.

One of the things that shocked me the most when I arrived in the US in 1992 was how difficult it was to meet with people. Everyone was too busy all the time.

I was used to meeting friends Spanish style, that is, on the spur of the moment. You would call someone, ask if they wanted to have coffee or a beer, and meet one hour later in a cafe or a bar for a chat that could last several hours.

Imagine my surprise when I asked a friend in the Bay Area when I could see her next and she took out her agenda and gave me a date two weeks later for a precise 1 hour slot. At first I thought she didn’t really want to see me. Later I realized most everyone had to consult their overfilled agendas to rescue an hour or two for a friend.

Aside from bars and restaurants, Spanish cities are densely packed with tall apartment buildings and small businesses abound, so there’s constant foot traffic to the hardware store, the bakery, the metro station, and so on. Life everywhere, all the time.

This might sound like a nightmare for people who prefer a remote rural area where the next neighbor is miles away, or a suburb with its rows of tidy single family homes and not a coffee shop in sight, but to me, the ease of connection and vibrant streets are a big plus.

And connection is not limited to bars and restaurants, because families tend to live in the same city and meet regularly. We are 10 siblings, and I am the only one living far away; everyone else lives within a 50 miles radius.

While my mom was alive, she cooked lunch for children and grandchildren —often more than 20 people— every single Sunday. A friend of mine told me that she and her husband have lunch with their three grown children (without their spouses) every Tuesday. A few others pick up their grandchildren from school at least once a week. A group of childhood girlfriends meets once a week for a walk.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t lonely people in Spain, of course there are. But social and familiar connections are, in general, much stronger than in the US. We used to say that in Spain people work to live and in the US people live to work. Although life has gotten much more stressful in Spain in the last couple of decades, friends and family continue to be a priority for the majority of people.

Here I see once a month my friends from a bookclub, but I sometimes go two or three months without meeting with other, older, closer girlfriends. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the busyness of life, and then collapse in the evening in front of Netflix or with a book instead of getting in the car, and driving to another Bay Area city to meet someone. Without noticing, we close off the doors to the people we cherish.

SOCIAL CONNECTION:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 5. US - 2.5

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Upgrade

Buy me a coffee

Aging in society

I recently read a post by , an expat living in Spain for over a year, and she replied to a comment of mine saying the following: “…my then nine year-old commented on how many old people there were. He had never seen so many elderly people out and about, integrated in society, in his life.”

So true. That’s another aspect I noticed more than ever in my last trip to Spain. I stayed part of the time in the Gracia neighborhood, which used to be a town before Barcelona expanded out of its medieval walls and engulfed it. Gracia still has that small town feeling, with a city hall, neighbors that often have lived in the same apartment for generations and lots of small plazas with terraces where people congregate.

Every morning I saw many seniors sitting at a terrace, enjoying the sun and the company of friends. Sometimes a frail elder arrived in a wheelchair pushed by a home aide or a relative, but they still got out of the house so they could socialize. They were living IN society, not hidden away at home like an old pair of slippers that never sees the light of day.

Some days a group of seniors would be dancing a slow version of Jazzercise, following an instructor’s lead. Others, you would see them sitting in front of a small stage where the neighborhood kids performed in a talent show. The point is: they were not alone.

If you go to a wedding or a family celebration of any kind in Spain, the older generation will always be present, often sitting at the head of the table to show them respect. (Little children running around are also present; that’s why when I see wedding invitations in the US that state “Adults only” I always feel a little frisson of horror.)

I was fortunate that my stay coincided with a gathering of my maternal cousins at my grandfather’s country house. One hundred and four of us showed up and it was not the whole bunch —we are a BIG family. Only three survivors of my mother’s generation were present, and after lunch two of them got up for an emotional speech to everyone’s delight.

My uncle Juan’s wise words: “Do you know what’s the formula for success? The percentage of people who know you and appreciate you. Therefore, I wish you all much success.”

We visited a Bay Area couple who are now expats in Valencia. I asked, “Aren’t you scared to grow older in a county where you don’t have family or close friends?” Their answer: “No, because here older people are active and visible, they are out enjoying life. And if I get too frail to go out by myself, in Spain I can afford a home aide to take me out, while in the US I could not afford it.”

Enough said.

AGING IN SOCIETY:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 6. US - 2.5

Safety

A consequence of Spaniards’ sociable nature is that it’s much safer to walk in the streets, even at night time, because there are always so many people around. I’ve never felt scared taking the metro after midnight for example, even alone.

Now, we have to take this statement with a grain of salt. Pickpockets and thieves are common, and if you look like a tourist you will be a target. But according to the World Bank, in 2021 the U.S. had 7 times more violent crime than Spain.

It’s easy to understand why. Spaniards simply don’t have a gun culture. Less than 3% of the population owns a gun and those who own one use it only for hunting or sport shooting, like my dad did. In the U.S. 32% of people own a gun and 44% live in a gun household.

After all, the US was built on a culture of violence from the start, first against Native Americans, and then through slavery. The myth of the rugged cowboy as the symbol of ideal masculinity is still very much alive in many parts of the country. The recent display and glorification of UFC caged fights in the White House exemplifies this ethos.

In contrast, although Spain has a long history of violent colonialism, the country was built on a continuous blend of cultures and ethnicities through the trade routes, the successive occupation by distinctive civilizations including Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans and Germanic tribes, the centuries-long coexistence and mixing of Christians, Arabs and Jewish before 1492, and the injection of mestizos coming from the New World after 1492.

Violence explodes in wars, or can take the form of a repressive dictatorship like Franco’s, but in the day to day, life is more peaceful than in the US.

That is not to say Spain doesn’t have a lot of crime. Domestic violence is a serious issue. So are other crimes, for example squatting. Although the percentage of squatters is relatively small (around 15,000 cases per year), 40% are concentrated in Catalonia.

So if you’re planning to get a home in Catalonia and only live there occasionally, make sure you have a plan to avoid squatters, because unfortunately getting them out of your house is extremely difficult once they’ve occupied it, especially if they have children.

But those are not the typical issues we would encounter if we moved to Spain. My main concern is feeling safe in my daily life, walking around the city, and in that respect, Spain definitely wins.

SAFETY:

U.S.: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 7. US - 2.5

Don’t miss the next installment next Thursday!

Read the previous installments of this series:

Read Part 1 discusses transportation, shopping and walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. Read Part 1, where I discussed transportation, shopping and walking here. Read Part 2, where I discussed food (eating out and eating in) here. The score so far: Spain - 4. US - 0.

Traffic and noise pollution

Talking about traffic is difficult because it varies so much depending on the location.

I live in Vallejo, a small city (125,000 people), about 45 minutes from San Francisco going north. Vallejo’s street traffic is a breeze and parking is free in most areas, including downtown. Perhaps this will change as Vallejo gets more newcomers —many millennials are moving here, because it’s one of the few cities in the Bay Area where they can still buy a house at a “reasonable” price— but for now, cruising the streets is painless.

Yet, those 45 minutes I quoted to get to and from San Francisco often become 1.5 hours or more because traffic on the freeway and the Bay Bridge is horrendous. Then you get to SF and find yourself advancing at a turtle pace due to traffic congestion and you spend at least twenty minutes trying to find parking.

I commuted to my office in SF every day for 10 years, and sometimes I would call my husband in tears at 5:30 pm to tell him that I had been stuck more than half an hour in two city blocks, trying to get into the freeway, and that I was giving up and having dinner in the city (everyone calls SF “the city” as if it were the only city in the Bay Area).

Rush hour goes from 6 am to 10 am and 3 pm to 8 pm, and often you find yourself bumper to bumper as well at any other hour, especially on weekends.

That said, aside from the dreadful commute into or out of San Francisco, you don’t feel the traffic within US cities the way you do in Barcelona, Madrid or any other large Spanish metropolitan area.

I mentioned that public transportation is excellent in Spain, yet traffic is a nightmare, because many residents choose to use their own car or motorcycle to shave a few minutes from their working day.

Since most streets are narrower than in the US and apartment buildings have several stories all over the city, car noise reverberates creating a constant hammering to your psyche, and car fumes are immediately noticeable in your lungs and in the patina of soot that coats the facades.

Parking is even worse than traffic. Not only is scarce and expensive, but the parking slots are so small that it's a miracle that every car doesn’t have more scratches than a 30 year old vinyl record —although many cars do show the battle scars of navigating parking garages designed by sadists.

Of course you could choose to live in a small Spanish town, where the horrors of traffic are attenuated. I would go for it, but my husband is urban through and through. Moving to a charming little village is probably not in the cards. He’s been complaining about living too far away from San Francisco for over a decade now.

It’s very hard to score this item, because traffic is objectively bad in big cities in both countries, yet, as a retiree that most of the time could avoid rush hour in the Bay Area, I have to go —reluctantly— with how traffic in a big city FEELS in my nervous system as opposed to how much traffic clogs the streets.

TRAFFIC AND NOISE POLLUTION SCORE (remember, we were at Spain: 4 and US: 0)

US: 0.5 (I can’t give it a full point because the traffic jams in the freeways and the congestion in big cities are real.)

SPAIN: 0

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN- 4 US - 0.5

Mass tourism

You knew I had to get to this topic. It’s been in the news how Spaniards have taken to the streets to protest mass tourism and skirt tourists with water guns, especially in Barcelona and Mallorca, one of the Baleares islands.

Spain receives more than double its population in tourists every year. Yes, that’s right. For every Spain resident, there are two tourists. And in Barcelona in particular, it’s eight tourists per resident. In 2025 Barcelona received 16 million tourists, and it only has 1.7 million residents.

Tourism used to be concentrated in the summer months but now it’s year round, especially on weekends, when cheap flights from other European countries allow visitors quick vacations on a regular basis.

There is no doubt that tourism brings a lot of money to the city. According to the Barcelona Tourism Observatory, direct spending related to tourism reached €10.375 billion in 2025.

Yet, it also brings a lot of misery.

Degrowth activists assert that the proliferation of short-term rentals has contributed to housing scarcity and steep rent increases. Landlords often evict long-term residents so they can turn the apartments into Airbnbs.

Aside from that, excess tourism has ruined large swaths of the city.

My memoir, Promenade of Desire is, among other things, a love letter to Barcelona. I grew up with my parents in Avenida del Tibidabo, the highest hill in the city, but once I moved out, I lived, loved and danced in the thick of the historic core, not far away from las Ramblas, for several years.

Now, when I go to Barcelona, like most residents, I avoid Las Ramblas, the gothic neighborhood, the Born neighborhood, and all Gaudí buildings like the plague because they are overrun by tourists. If I go to those areas for an exhibit or to buy something in a particular shop, I get in and out as quickly as possible and swear under my breath the whole time about the hordes of visitors that have taken over my city.

I cannot explain how sad it is to feel expelled from neighborhoods I love so much. Or to see the beautiful signs of venerable, centenarian stores now turned empty symbols, since their traditional merchandise has been replaced by cheap souvenirs, each as tacky as the next. Or to try to have some tapas in one of my all-time favorite bars and find a long line of tourists that dissuades me from entering.

I had the same experience in Valencia, where the masses of tourists in the historic core made us abandon the idea of visiting the beautiful Lonja, but once you get out of that core, tourists are not as noticeable as in Barcelona.

In smaller cities, the tourist invasion disappears. I didn’t see tourists in Manresa, for example, where three of my siblings live. In fact, my husband and I were the only visitors to the new Baroque museum and the famous cave of St. Ignatius. And I don’t see tourists in Vic, a small city close to the town where we used to spend the summer, even though it’s beautiful.

The Spanish government, and especially the Catalan government, are thinking of ways to diminish mass tourism, but it remains to be seen if they’ll get results.

The US also has tourists, of course, as anyone visiting Times Square in New York or Pier 39 in San Francisco knows. But they have not obliterated the native population, and they are not as noticeable in every beautiful city landmark as they are in Spain —because the problem doesn’t exist only in Barcelona. As a recent article in the New York Times explained, marches against overtourism have also happened in Granada, San Sebastián, and Ibiza among other places.

So for this topic, the score is clear when we talk about big cities in both countries.

MASS TOURISM SCORE

US:1

SPAIN: 0

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 4 US - 1.5

The smell and the water

In Spain trash doesn’t sit in private bins behind a yard fence, as it happens in many US cities with their many single family home neighborhoods. It sits in big containers in street corners.

On the positive side, Spaniards recycle almost everything. There are separate containers for trash, compost, paper and plastic, and glass and metal (you need four different buckets of trash at home as well and practice to remember what goes where). On the negative side, the stench of the trash in the warm months is very noticeable, especially in cities like Barcelona or Valencia, which have heat and humidity several months per year.

Then there is the sewer system. Like in the rest of Europe, it’s very old and not built for the population density we have today, so often while walking in the old part of town your nostril is assaulted by a nauseating odor: sewer residual gases going up instead of down. I noticed the same issue while walking in various Parisian neighborhoods.

It’s not a constant nuisance, but it exists.

You’ll tell me that New York has a bigger trash problem and you may be right. But I am comparing where I live now —the San Francisco/Bay Area— to where I may live in the future —a mid to big size city in Spain.

Municipal water also has its problems. I don’t know about other cities but in Barcelona, Manresa and Valencia, the water is harsh, treated with so much calcium and magnesium that when you wash your hair it ends up with the texture of straw. The clothes come out of the washer so stiff that they can stand on their own.

And the taste… Barcelona’s water comes from a river that requires heavy treatment to make it potable so it tastes pretty awful. Either you tough it out and keep a couple of bottles of faucet water in the fridge so the cold camouflages the taste a little, or you capitulate and buy bottled water always. I dislike either option.

These are relatively minor problems that might be overcome with a few tactics, such as using a very rich conditioner on your hair, ironing the clothes you care about to take the stiffness out of them or buying a dryer (many Spanish homes don’t have one), installing a water filter on your faucets, and so on.

And there are well off neighborhoods in any major city where the traffic noise and pollution and the mass tourism are less noticeable (wider avenues, few tourist attractions).

Still, there’s no doubt that in terms of water taste, water quality, city smells and sewer systems, the US takes it home.

SMELL AND WATER SCORE:

US: 1

SPAIN: 0

SPAIN IS WINNING: SPAIN - 4 US- 2.5

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Upgrade

Buy me a coffee

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Are there any factors so far that would dissuade you from living in Spain?

Leave a comment

This article is part of a series analyzing lifestyle differences between Spain and the US, as my husband and I try to decide if we should move to Spain, my country of origin, permanently. You can read Part 1, where I discussed transportation, shopping and walking here. The score from those three factors: Spain - 3. US - 0.

Today I’ll discuss something that no one can avoid encountering several times a day. Therefore, it’d better be positive, right? I’m talking, of course, about food.

Eating out

Food is not just sustenance for me. It isn’t either a means to an end, such as a race to eat as much protein as possible, or whatever else is currently fashionable in the American diet to build muscle, lose weight, or increase the variety of your gut microbiome. Aside from a necessity, food is, above all, pleasure and community.

Having been raised in a Spanish household where both lunch and dinner included two savory dishes homemade from scratch and delicious, I am bound to expect a lot from every meal.

You will understand then, that I almost orgasm when I go to Spain and I am reunited with one of the best inventions of our culture: el menú del día.

Practically every restaurant in Spain offers el menú del día (or daily menu) from Monday to Friday at lunch. Some also offer it on weekends. It’s usually printed on a sheet of paper aside from the carta (regular menu) and/or on a blackboard at the entrance of the restaurant.

El menú del día consists of the traditional two savory dishes and dessert that I grew up eating, but it offers three to five options for the primer plato, three to five options for the segundo plato and the same for el postre (dessert), which you can substitute for coffee if you prefer. It also includes a drink, which can be wine, beer, water or soda. Typically, el menú del día offers at least some different dishes every day, so if you eat daily at your neighborhood restaurant you find variety.

We are not talking here about an appetizer and an entrée. Oh, no. The primer plato can be as hefty as the segundo plato. It might include a lighter option, such as a salad, a gazpacho or a escalivada (grilled peppers and eggplant), but it also offers dishes like muscles in a wine sauce, pasta Spanish style, some type of rice like paella or rice milanesa, a legume stew such as lentils or chickpeas, and so on.

The segundo plato offers proteins grilled, stewed or braised, often with an acompañamiento, either fries or veggies. There’s always at least one fish dish within the options. The postre has traditional options such as flan or crema catalana (creme brûlée), as well as ice cream or fruit.

Are you salivating yet?

Let’s not forget the drink. If you order wine, some restaurants will place a whole bottle of a decent Spanish wine on the table. Others will pour you a generous glass.

All this healthy, homemade, delectable food, if you stick to no-frills neighborhoods and restaurants far from tourists’ attractions, costs between €14 and €23 per person ($16 to $26). I cannot even get one entrée for that amount in the Bay Area, let alone three dishes and a glass of wine.

You may think that this is too much food to be eating at midday, and that people must get fat on this diet. It’s true that some Spaniards put on a few extra kilos and men often get a beer belly in midlife (or, as we call it once they marry, la barriguita de la felicidad —the little happiness belly). But you will hardly see anybody morbidly obese.

That’s because it’s a lot of food, yes, but it’s healthy food cooked from scratch. Also, the Spanish diet calls for a heavy lunch and a light dinner, which is better for you than a sandwich at lunch and a heavy dinner, typical in the US.

Tips

Another important aspect of eating out is that you don’t have to tip. You read this right. No tips. Of course, if you’re happy with the meal and the service, you can tip, but it’s not mandatory nor automatically expected. And when you tip, you tip around 5%. Tipping 10% is almost extravagant. (This is different for high end restaurants, but we stuck with neighborhood restaurants.)

My husband and I almost always left a tip. We noticed more than once that if the tip was €1 or more, the servers looked at us like we were King Midas. Spaniards will often leave only the change, usually 20 to 80 cents —or nothing, especially if they pay with cards, which is how everyone pays these days. None of these digital requests for tips starting at 18% and going to 25% for absolutely everything, as it happens in the US. The one place that had the digital tip request, which catered to tourists, started at 5%.

Why not tipping, you may ask? Because waiters in Spain are paid a living wage that is regulated by the law, as it should be.

I understand it’s not the case in the US, and that if waiters didn’t get tips here they would starve, so I tip religiously when I eat out in the Bay Area. But with the expensive price tag for any meal, and the 20% tip, eating out has become a rare occurrence, reserved for special occasions.

In Spain, partly because we were on vacation, but also because it was so affordable, we ate lunch outside very often. If we lived there permanently, we would curtail the restaurant meals, but we could easily afford to eat lunch out once or twice a week. What a delight!

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Buy me a coffee

Eating in

I’ll be honest. I didn’t cook a whole lot during my vacation. At night we often ate a simple salad, perhaps with manchego cheese and some scrumptious cold cuts (jamón serrano, jamón dulce, and so on) and pan con tomate. (If you haven’t tried pan con tomate you’re really missing out. Here is a recipe.) That said, I did cook a few meals.

Three decades ago, when I lived in Spain, it was common to shop at small local stores: the butcher, the fishmonger, the baker, a produce store, and so on. Nowadays, there are supermarket chains all over the city, so food has changed. But many neighborhoods still have open markets with stalls where you can buy fresh produce, meat and fish, not packaged in cellophane. Here is a video of the fish section in one such open market. Isn’t it great?

Food is cheaper than in the Bay Area, and if you buy in the open markets, you’re sure to get good quality and fresh produce and product. The fish and the meat, even the packaged cuts in the supermarket, taste better, at least to my palate.

In the US, I’ve suffered from a lot of stomach issues. My gastroenterologist forbid me many foods and drinks and put me on a ton of supplements and vitamins. In Spain, I ate whatever I wanted, drank coffee and alcohol daily, didn’t take any supplements so I wouldn’t have to haul them around, and I didn’t have a single problem. I don’t know if there are less preservatives in the food, or it’s simply because I was relaxed, but I felt better than I’ve had in years.

And I ate so much fish… The Mediterranean diet is the gold standard for a reason. Olive oil reigns in the kitchen, fish is part of the regular diet, so is fruit, salads are dressed with olive oil, salt and vinegar, not with a prepared dressing with a dozen ingredients, and the light dinner helps.

It is also easy to find prepared meals that are not frozen and chock full of who knows what colorants and flavor enhancers. You can buy them very cheap in supermarkets or go to a neighborhood shop specialized in cheeses, cold cuts and traditional dishes cooked fresh every day. They are pricier than the supermarkets’ packaged meals, but you find great quality and it’s still quite affordable for a weekly splurge. I became addicted to the ensaladilla rusa of our neighborhood shop and it cost less than €8 to have enough for two.

What can I say? I love Spanish food.

FOOD SCORE (remember, we were already at Spain- 3 and US - 0)

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING 4-0.

Don’t worry, we will get to some aspects where the US scores better than Spain. I am writing these posts in the same order I lived them or noticed them while I was there, so I am not concerned with keeping balance at the moment. Next Thursday, part 3.

Read Part 1: Transportation, Shopping and Walking.

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

I recently spent six weeks in Europe: almost 5 weeks in Spain and ten days in France. I went on that extended stay with my husband to figure out if we would like to move to Spain for good.

With the World Cup raging right now, I thought it would be fun and useful to rank which country scored more “goals” in a lifestyle battle.

In the next few posts I’ll be sharing my rankings and the thought process behind them.

You would think that for me, a Spaniard who lived in her hometown of Barcelona the first 33 years of her life, the decision to move back to her roots would be easy. But it isn’t.

I have lived in the US since 1992, more time than I’ve lived in Spain. My husband was born and raised in San Francisco and never considered before moving far away. We have a 24 year old son who would not come with us, close friends, and a tight professional network. And we love the San Francisco-Bay Area.

Still. Life here is expensive and stressful, especially now with what’s going on in the country.

Politics and emotional costs are key factors in our decision to move or not, but considering one by one different aspects of the daily life we would have in Spain vs. the Bay Area seemed a good way to help us gain some clarity. I will focus, therefore, on everyday practicalities that can make your existence miserable or delightful.

We spent our time in Spain mostly in Barcelona and Manresa (a city 53 miles north of Barcelona, towards the interior), with a detour of a few days in Valencia, down the Mediterranean coast. Keep in mind, then, that when describing life in Spain I am referring to life in a city —medium sized like Valencia, with 800,000 people, big like Barcelona, with about 1.7 million people or 5.7 million if you include the larger metropolitan area, or smallish like Manresa, with 80,000 people.)

Here it comes:

Transportation

The joy of not using a car for six weeks and still being able to go anywhere we wanted easily and cheaply cannot be overstated.

In Barcelona, we bought a monthly metro card for 23 euros (around 27 dollars), which allowed for unlimited trips in the underground metro and any bus for 30 consecutive days, independent of the calendar, which is helpful if you don’t live there and you arrive mid-month.

If the public transportation system were like BART, the Bay Area “metro” system — few routes and stops, stations that are far from where you live and require a car to get there, long waits, often filthy seats, super expensive tickets— that wouldn’t mean much. But public transportation in Barcelona is AWESOME.

The metros come every 2 to 3 minutes. They run until midnight during weekdays, 2 a.m. on Fridays and all night long on Saturdays —Spaniards like to party hard on weekends! They reach almost every corner of the city and when they don’t, you have bus lines that fill the gap.

Buses and trains also take you to other cities on regular and frequent schedules —I had hourly buses from Manresa to Barcelona and viceversa and more frequently during rush hours.

You could live perfectly well without owning a car, and rent one only when you plan to travel to several places or rural locations with less transportation. Not owning wheels reduces your cost of living considerably —no parking and toll fees, maintenance, repairs or insurance— and is much less stressful than dealing with traffic every day.

The metro stations are clean and every single one has lifts and escalators, so going around with suitcases was a breeze. They are also doable for older people. Very different from Paris, where hardly any station is accessible and people with disabilities or too old for the exhausting sport of climbing the unending stairs are shut out of the system. In Paris, we suffered and sweated with our suitcases and gained a chink in our necks as a result. On the other hand, the metro’s stairs surely contribute to French people’s slim physique in spite of the tons of cheese, butter and rich sauces they eat.

In Valencia, public transportation is just as easy or even better than in Barcelona. You have the metro, buses and trams. Seniors pay 20 euros for a card with unlimited rides for a year. Valencia also has an incredible bike network throughout the whole city and it’s very flat, so it’s easy to take advantage of it.

Many people in Barcelona, unfortunately, choose to use their car. One of my brothers told me, “It takes me 20 minutes to get to my office by car and 45 minutes with the metro.” As retirees, though, we would not be in a hurry.

Climate change is one of my biggest concerns, so abandoning the inevitable attachment to a vehicle we have in the US, where you need it to go anywhere, would be a big advantage for me.

Of course, if you live in New York, you do have a good metro network, but that is the exception rather than the rule in a country that has been built for cars and not for people.

TRANSPORTATION SCORE:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

Shopping

If I lived in Spain getting rid of Amazon —something I’ve been wanting to do— would be a breeze. In a city, no matter the size, you have everything you need within a 5 to 10 minute walk: bakeries, pharmacies, several supermarkets, clothing, hardware stores, gift shops, many restaurants and cafes, flower shops, gyms, banks… you name it!

Here, we do a big grocery shopping on Saturdays, going to two or three different stores, each of them by car, and fill up the fridge. Inevitably, something goes to waste. It doesn’t keep well, or I am too tired to cook, or I forget I had that item in the back of the second shelf, covered by all the other products.

These essays are free to read, but your support is appreciated. Consider upgrading or buying me a coffee ☕️. It’ll make me feel all warm and cozy!

Upgrade

Buy me a coffee

In Spain, it’s not necessary to do a humongous shopping once a week because going to the market takes 5 minutes by foot. It’s easy to replenish more often and have always fresh produce that you’re sure you will use. While we were in Barcelona, we walked down to the bakery every morning for a loaf of bread, still warm from the oven. Yum!

If you prefer to buy in bulk, there are market chains, like Mercadona, that sell at lower prices, where many people buy for the week, but I would rather take advantage of my small local shops. Since they are so close, it’s doable even if you’re working.

Of course, if you choose to live in certain residential areas such as the wealthy Pedralbes with its modern mansions, you will not have shops accessible by foot. I grew up in such a place, in a house on the beautiful Avenida del Tibidabo, which required a mile and a half walk to go buy anything and I said I would never do that again.

Then I found myself living in the US, where you need a car to get to any shop. Cringe.

Aside from the thriving local commerce, which keeps the streets buzzing with people, there is the human connection that this type of shopping provides. We were not there long enough to become regulars, but if you live there, soon you’ll find that the waiter at the corner restaurant and the seller at the market receive you with a smile, know your name, and chat you up. Yes, please!

Some Spaniards, like one of my nephews, prefer to rely on Amazon because they save a little money on purchases. I’d say in the end you buy more because it’s so easy and convenient, so you end up saving less.

If I move to Spain, one thing is clear and will happen immediately: bye, bye Amazon.

SHOPPING SCORE:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING 2-0

Exercise: Walking

A direct result of the two previous factors is that you walk a lot in Spain, and in Europe in general. You walk to the metro station, from your stop to your destination —it may be just 5 or 10 minutes, but when you do it several times a day, it adds up. You walk to go shopping, to meet with friends in a nearby cafe, or you simply take a stroll down a street looking at the shops.

I was not counting my steps, but I easily walked more than 10,000 every day. In Paris, we added the metro stairs, so I did more exercise in those six weeks than I had done in a while. Some days my thighs were burning in the evening.

With all that walking, my joints were greased. I didn't wake up with pain in my hips from too much sitting —although I had to be mindful not to overdo the miles, or I would be sore, because I have osteoarthritis.

WALKING SCORE:

US: 0

SPAIN: 1

SPAIN IS WINNING 3-0

I will leave it here for today, but will come back next week with more scores. And don’t think that Spain wins every match! US also packs some wins.

Read the rest of this series: Spain vs US, a Lifestyle Challenge:

Read Part 2: Food (eating out and eating in).

Read Part 3: Traffic and Noise Pollution, Mass Tourism, Water and Smells

Read Part 4: Social Connection, Aging in Society, Safety.

Read Part 5: Politics.

Read Part 6: Climate Change and Global Warming.

Read Part 7: Movies, Live (Latin) Music, Art, Travel

Read Part 8: Taxes

Read Part 9: Affordability and Regulations

Read Part 10: Health Insurance and Green Urban Spaces

Read Part 11: Family and Community

Read Part 12: Common Pitfalls of Would-be Expats: An Interview with Kevin Brass, author of the Substack newsletter Barcelona Anarchy.

Leave a comment

Buy me a coffee

Yesterday I saw a “year in review” from a friend on Instagram. She had a lot of detail, month by month, accompanied by photos. This made me think about what the highlights of 2025 were for me.

The only thing that rose immediately to the surface as a big win was not even my own triumph. It was my son graduating from college in June, coming back to live with us and, after an arduous and at times frustrating four month long job search, landing his first full time job. The relief and pride I’ve felt witnessing his success, born of discipline and tenacity, are immense.

It doesn’t help that I am not active on social media any longer — I don’t have the sort of “photo diary” that helped me reminisce in years past. Or the fact that the appointments from January to June in my iPhone calendar have mysteriously disappeared. Or that I don’t keep a journal.

Even less helpful is the way events inscribe in my memory these days, like writing on sand which disappears with the next wave. I forget the books I read, the movies I watch, the concerts I attend and the conversations I’ve had with scary speed.

But still, one would think that some milestones would surface spontaneously. Yet they didn’t.

This prompted me to start writing a list of what I DID during 2025. And looking at that list I can see that, objectively, I did quite a lot. I fulfilled fairly well the priorities I had set for myself in April 2025 (that’s when I finally got around to establishing goals).

I wrote these priorities in the shape of a pyramid, as recommends for achieving clarity, with the most important at the top. His pyramid has four rows, which means four more priorities but I decided to keep it simple and only wrote three rows.

HEALTH

FAMILY/HOME — CREATIVE EXPRESSION

FINANCIAL STABILITY — FRIENDS — VOLUNTEER/CONTRIBUTE

Under each priority I wrote a few specific goals, and I have met more than two thirds. Yet, it still doesn’t feel like a successful year.

Why?

Because more important than what I DID is how I FELT. And I felt scared and anxious the first part of the year and lost and confused the second half.

The political upheaval of 2025 affected me deeply. It still does, but taking some steps to shore up my finances has helped corral my anxiety, if not my dismay.

As per the confusion, I am shedding an identity but I still don’t know what the new shape of me should be.

I am tapering down my paid work, flirting with professional retirement, but not quite there. And I have left behind — at least for the time being — the persona of a career writer.

I still write, in fact, I’m pretty prolific. In 2025 I wrote 28 articles for the Vallejo Sun and 17 newsletters for Substack, which I launched in April. This combined output adds up to almost one piece per week. I have also reviewed my memoir Promenade of Desire in Spanish and in English, started recording the audio book and have penned drafts 2 and 3 of my new novel, which is now ready to share with beta readers.

But I have not done a single thing to promote my memoir. Not one. I have not attended conferences where I spoke and sold quite a few books the last few years. I haven’t taught classes adjacent to my topic, which was an indirect promotion. I have not camped out in front of bookshops talking about my book and selling it. I have abandoned social media.

I have also retreated from writing groups, writing classes, newsletters about writing, or anything else pertaining to what I call “the literary-industrial complex.” That machine that is so efficient in taking your money and so inefficient in helping you sell your books.

I have gone inward, working in solitude, as if I didn’t care a bit about readers finding my work.

But of course I care. I care but apparently not enough to make those efforts.

My allergy to the literary-industrial complex is so acute that I am considering publishing my novel in installments directly on Substack, so I don’t need to attempt finding an agent, a publishing house and so on. Go directly to the readers (would you read my novel in installments?).

It’s not that 2025 was a bad year (aside from politics).

I am alive and healthier than I was in 2024, which was marked by injuries and illnesses. Two and a half years into living in my new city, I have settled in and feel comfortable in my surroundings. We finished paying off the mortgage and installed solar panels to prepare for the coming years with a fixed modest income. I started drawing social security, three years earlier than I wanted, but prioritizing the need to calm my anxiety — and it helped. I took a watercolor workshop that I loved and I am now open to experimenting creatively in other realms than writing, just for fun. I joined a delightful book club. I read some really good books and saw a few movies that impacted me (I’ll write about it another time). I cooked a lot and nurtured my family intentionally and lovingly.

There were disappointments and pain as well: the literary agent in Spain who loved my memoir but ended up ghosting me. The volunteering that turned out more time-consuming and less fulfilling than I expected. The painful insecurity about my novel. Friends and relatives who got sick and friends who passed away.

The feeling that I had nothing to give, nothing of value to share, and therefore, the sudden interruption of my newsletter for a month. Thinking, how can I write again about how confused I feel? Who will want to read that? The impulse to disappear, to close myself off from friends and strangers, to never have a public persona again.

It has not been an easy time.

And yet here I am again, in all my weakness. Writing a newsletter that is not uplifting nor inspirational, but simply true.

For you and me I wish that 2026 is a year full of presence, where we savor the moments that offer a quiet beauty, where we find joy in all our blessings and courage to face the adversities.

With love.

Leave a comment

I have never been a fan of reality shows, and especially not of dating shows, but I make an exception with the Netflix series Love is Blind.

Twenty men and twenty women date each other in isolated pods, through a wall. For about ten days, they talk and connect emotionally, whittling down the list of people they want to keep dating until they settle on “the one.” At that point the man proposes and if the woman accepts they get engaged without having seen each other.

For the next three weeks they meet in person, go on a brief vacation in an idyllic setting, get back their phones, and return to their jobs and to real life, introducing each other to friends and family. The series culminates with the weddings of the handful of couples that have made it this far. Some get married and others say no at the altar.

The premise of the show is genius, because the audience itches to know: “Will they be happy or disappointed when they see each other for the first time?” And later, “Will they butt heads once they are back in real life?” and “Will they say Yes or No at the altar?”

One thing becomes clear: Love is NOT blind. When the engaged couple meet in person and they find a partner that they are not attracted to physically, the relationship usually peters out before they get to the altar.

What fascinates me in this series is observing the relationships form and evolve and realizing how starved for love human beings are. We lie to others and to ourselves to secure it.

As an impartial observer of these entanglements it’s easy for me to notice the red flags that doom a relationship from the start, but the contestants blind themselves to them as far as they hear the magic words: I love you.

That’s the real blindness the show exposes, not the fact that couples get engaged without seeing each other. Men and women alike are ready to get engaged to another person as far as they are assured that they will always be the object of their adoration. Nine times out of ten they don’t fall in love with their potential fiancés even though they think so: they fall in love with their declarations of love.

This self-deception is clear when one contestant struggles to choose between two strong connections. Invariably, when one finds out he or she is in the short list, they amp up their declarations of undying love and passion to influence the decision.

I watch in disbelief as the indecisive individual chooses the worst possible match —which they were doubting with good reason up to that moment — while rejecting a much better option simply because they didn’t say enough times or with enough passion “You are my person.”

I even watched one season of the French version of the show to see if it had the same dynamic. It did. The key word was “rassuré.” Contestants repeated often that they wanted to be reassured that they were loved without reservations, and as soon as the promise was made they rushed head on into an engagement (although none of the French couples made it to the altar).

Are we all so hopelessly famished for love that we will disregard our intuition and common sense to secure a partner? And what about me? Was I always as needy as these contestants in my love choices?

Reflecting back on my tumultuous youth, there’s no doubt that I was desperately looking for love through too many boyfriends and lovers. But I think I was attracted to the men themselves, more than their devotion. I started dating them because I liked them even when their love was not a given.

Except in one case.

After breaking up with a man I had lived with for more than two years, who had shown me what it meant to be loved without reservations, I became addicted to being loved. I hitched myself to a guy who professed his adoration even though I didn’t even like him that much. He turned out to be emotionally abusive. I broke up with him after a few months.

A cautionary tale for people who blindly choose a mate who promises love even though there are clear incompatibilities.

When I started dating my husband in 1995 I was 35 and ready to start a family, but we got together because we were attracted to each other, we had interests in common and we had fun. As the relationship progressed, I knew he would be good husband and father material: loyal, affectionate, faithful, and steady.

These qualities weighed in my decision to marry him, no doubt, but I didn’t go blindly into marriage because he professed to love me forever. I knew where our conflicts and rough spots were and believed we had a strong enough foundation to smooth them over. Thirty years later, through many ups and downs, we’re still together and more solid than ever.

What I have learned during our journey is that the most important factor in a successful marriage is not being loved and adored but, on the contrary, making a commitment to love and support the other person.

Being and feeling loved is crucial, yes, but it’s the love we give, the willingness to work through the hard times and learn from them, that helps us grow as a person, not the love we receive.

Lately I’ve been feeling unsettled. I am always busy but I don’t seem to achieve anything or, at least, anything that I deem deeply significant.

My attention is dispersed into too many activities, paid and unpaid. My day seems a slice of Emmental, more holes than continuity.

Lack of consistent organization also contributes to my unease. When I quit my corporate job in 2016 to focus on creative writing and to launch my own business, I set up a large whiteboard in my studio. It detailed monthly, weekly and daily goals.

I went after these goals with the same zeal as if I still were a corporate executive managing teams in several countries and subject to performance reviews.

Since we downsized to a smaller house two years ago, I don’t have a “room of my own” and its corresponding whiteboard. My son occupies my future studio until he saves enough to move out. I have a desk in my bedroom and a less clear and visible way to organize my projects.

But when I dig deeper, I realize that an excessive amount of tasks and lack of organization are not the real cause of my discontent. They are factors in it, but the true culprit is the lack of prioritization.

From 2016 to 2023 I adopted the creed of the one thing: focusing all my attention first thing in the morning on the ONE thing that was most important. Mornings became sacred writing time as I penned my memoir, Promenade of Desire. Everything else got relegated to afternoons and evenings.

I didn’t mind having multiple goals and jumping from one to the other after lunch, because the focused attention in the morning on a single crucial project allowed me to achieve what Cal Newport calls deep work: focusing without distraction on a cognitively demanding task that creates new value for you and for the world.

The last couple of years I haven’t elevated a task among all others and I am not quite sure why. Without the rich subconscious thread that knits itself when you are tethered to a single project consistently, all my projects advance slowly and haphazardly.

The jumpiness of my days is exacerbated by my phone addiction. I’m not as bad as some teenagers, who spend upwards of eight or nine hours on their phones. But I snack throughout the day: multiple email and WhatsApp checks, quick perusals of Instagram, Substack, and the main culprit: the New York Times.

I’ve been subscribed to the Times for more than a decade, but I was always too busy in the morning to spend time with it. Scroll forward to late 2023 and 2024, when a series of injuries and illnesses forced me to take a long break. The New York Times found its way to my breakfast and, given the convulsed state of the country, settled permanently there.

I spent an hour and a half every morning reading the paper top to bottom and couldn’t start my day without filling in the Mini crossword, solving the Wordle and finding the Connections. Then I opened the app multiple times a day scouring for new articles. I also checked my email, WhatsApp, and Substack during breakfast.

You may think that reading the paper in the morning, especially when you are in your 60s and deserve some slack, is not a big deal. But my brain is freshest and my creativity juiciest in the mornings. Spending those precious hours on distractions and on the rage and frustration of difficult news amounted to self-sabotage. It also set me up for a day with lower standards and energy.

That’s why during our last meeting with my health accountability group, at the beginning of October, I asserted that my main new goal this month was to delete the New York Times app from my phone, read it only in my laptop, and never before lunch.

It took me a few days to delete the app. I thought I would miss it terribly. I took the plunge on October 9.

To my surprise, not only I haven’t missed reading the Times in the morning, but I often forget to read it until late afternoon. And instead of spending an hour and a half, I peruse the headlines, read a couple of news articles and a couple of features, and I’m done in less than half an hour.

Even more shocking: I have stopped playing the three games I so loved — Mini, Wordle, Connections — because I hate the interface in the online version. It has not been difficult to let them go: out of sight, out of mind.

I had a similar experience when I deleted the Facebook app from my phone a few months ago. I only check Facebook every couple of weeks, usually because I need to post something for the newspaper I work for or I want to post a link to Substack. I never spend more than five or ten minutes on the site and I don’t miss it. If I weren’t an Admin for the newspaper, I might have already deleted my account.

This experience has made me reflect on the perils of apps. They are so available, so seductive, so frictionless that it is hard to resist them. The constant snacking breaks our capacity to focus on the deep work that truly satisfies us.

Breaking my addiction to the morning New York Times has not yet solved my struggle with lack of prioritization. Unfortunately, I have substituted that morning read with Substack, but I keep it contained to half an hour. It’s a step in the right direction.

Next, perhaps I need to relearn to have breakfast without touching my phone. I could create a new, more positive habit: reading a book that invites reflection, journaling, or simply letting my mind wander on what is the ONE thing that merits my full attention.

Do you struggle with addiction to the news?

Subscribe now

Below is an essay I previously published in The Manifest Station. In it, I literally bare myself. Because I have nothing to hide.

The Breast of Me

by Isidra Mencos

She’s looking straight at the camera, standing relaxed and confident in the front patio, right by the gate that opens to Avenida del Tibidabo. Her blond hair in a pixie cut suits her petite features. It’s hard to know if it’s late summer or fall based on her lovely but indecisive top. A thin jersey snug to the body, it’s sleeveless, but has a turtleneck. The color is lemon chiffon, a very pale yellow. You can clearly see two tender mounds and the dark whisper of nipples through the fabric, but she’s unsuspecting. At 9 years old, she’s not yet aware of the power of breasts.

A few years later, when she finds this photo in her brother’s drawer, Nabokov rushes to mind. Oblivious Lolita, this girl in the see-through top may have aroused the imagination of creepy old men, or even her siblings, with the suggestive innocence only a young virgin can harbor.

I had breasts. They lived on my chest. But I didn’t mind them. They were mine, but they were not me.

Slow dancing, lights off, shutters closed. Summer heat banned outdoors, fire in her 12-year-old body. Pressed from shoulders to knees to the boy she likes. Not even a pin could come between them. Let’s stay together says Al Green. She wants to whisper it in his ear. The song ends, he goes away, another boy lines up. Hands on his shoulders pressing backwards, waist tense with the effort to recoil. Song after song a boy in line, seeking to mold the soft putty of her breasts with their tight embrace. Her flat-chested friend, they dance with at arm’s length, their one-track twitchy minds at ease.

I had breasts. They lived on my chest. They were small but they ranked me high. We were getting acquainted.

She’s 15, her breasts grown full size. Not too big, not too small. Perfectly proportioned with her body. Catcalls follow her from construction site to construction site. She feels flattered.

She’s 18. “You have beautiful breasts,” says her boyfriend. “What do you mean?” she asks. “They are round, soft, perky, nice size,” he says. She thinks he’s silly. Breasts are breasts are breasts.

She’s in her 20s, then in her 30s. She discovers drinking. She discovers Barcelona’s underbelly. She discovers salsa. She discovers dancing. She discovers lingerie. She discovers seducing. She discovers a part of her that lay sleeping under hundreds of Sunday masses, confessions, and repressions.

I had breasts. They lived on my chest. I carried them like a banner. They sparked desires and delights.

Early forties, a suckling alien takes residence at her udder. She alternates between bliss and resentment. Eleven months go by. The mouth expelled, a warm little hand takes its place. Seeking refuge and comfort, her bosom his womb, the last thread of a union that will forever be missed.

I had breasts. They lived on my chest. They performed miracles. They were his.

She’s 49. “This will be a blip in the story of your life,” says the nurse. How can having a breast chopped off be just a blip? A polka dot pattern in the milk ducts is just pre-cancer, they say. Better safe than sorry, they say. It’s your lucky day, they say post-op. No chemo, no radio.

The last few years of rebuffs unspool in her mind. They sagged a bit, the traitors. Lights off. Hands off. Don’t come anywhere near.

(She could have cupped them in her hands like fluffy newborn puppies, presented them like an offering. Instead she concealed them like a blemish. All that bliss missed out.)

Indignities pile up.

Reconstruction. Pretend nipple with pretend tattooed color. Lifting of the other breast. Different sizes. Different shapes. No more diaphanous, delicate lace. Bras like armor.

Lights off. Hands off. Don’t come anywhere near.

I had a fake and a real breast. They lived on my chest, but they occupied my whole body.

She’s 54. Hardened scars encapsulate the implant. It sits hard as a billiard ball, three inches higher than it should. That last dash of her, the skin, exiled from blood flow, frosts like shaved ice. It brings tremors to her mind when she lies in bed, this unyielding blotched orb.

New surgery. New implant. New scar. This one will crinkle her skin, but she doesn’t know it yet. Right breast reduced to match the size of the fake left. She will lose sensation in the nipple, the only real one she has, but she doesn’t know it yet. Symmetry improves, but truth settles. She will never be the same.

A few years go by. She grows into the woman she was supposed to be. Brave. Ignited from within. She’s never felt so beautiful. She makes peace with all of her, past, present, and future. Even the pain of lost ecstasy fades away.

Pleasure awaits on the crook of her elbow, on the back of her knee, in the meet of the eyes.

I have some sort of breasts. They live on my chest. But I don’t mind them. They are mine, but they are not me.

Subscribe now

I see many posts in Substack of people extolling the benefits of older age. For example: “At 30 this, at 40 that, at 50 the other thing and at 60 I finally don’t give a damn about anyone’s opinions and I spend my days doing what I love.”

As a soon to be 67-year old I relate to these sentiments, but there are other sides of getting older, rarely discussed, which are just as real.

I wake up every day with aches in muscles I didn’t know existed, creaky hips and a right knee that seems about to fail. A lifetime sitting in front of a computer and not exercising regularly for years has contributed to weakened and tight muscles, but arthritis in the joints is also a natural result of aging.

My ophthalmologist recently diagnosed me with early cataracts, which explains why driving at night has become treacherous: the lights of incoming cars blind me.

I have noticed my hearing isn’t as sharp as it used to be. I have canceled in-person interpretation gigs, fearful that I won’t capture every word I need to relay in a different language.

I used to be able to eat anything I wanted. Now I rarely drink alcohol or coffee, try to stay away from fried and spicy foods and have reduced sour drinks and dishes to avoid the unpleasant effects of chronic acid reflux and gastritis.

Since I hit menopause a decade and a half ago my libido decreased steadily and the dryness down there has reached epic proportions (sorry, TMI, but I am keeping it real).

None of the above impedes me having a full life. I also try to find workarounds for every handicap.

Last year I created a health accountability group with three friends. We meet monthly via zoom to talk about our health goals, usually related to food, exercise, and healthy habits like meditation. In the next meeting we review how we did and set up goals for the next month.

It has been helpful having check ins with women around my age who understand where I am at, cheer me on when I achieve a goal, listen to me without judgment when I don’t, and offer good advice for bridging the difference.

I start every day with 20 to 25 minutes of a stretch routine that helps with the aches and pains. Every other day I do upper body strength training at home. My goals are modest. Last year I was recovering from a wrist and a shoulder injury and I used one and two pound weights. Now I’ve graduated to three or four pounds, depending on the exercise. Don’t laugh. I know it’s very little, but I have to increase the resistance slowly or I get tennis elbow.

I use yellow-colored glasses at night to drive, and that helps with the glare of incoming cars. I don’t miss the in-person interpretation appointments, and my hearing is good enough for everything else, at least for now.

I don’t feel deprived by eliminating certain foods from my diet. I still treat myself to a coffee, a cocktail, a glass of wine or a spicy dish occasionally. I’d rather have less of it than have it daily and deal with the consequences.

I cannot use hormone replacement therapy (I am a breast cancer survivor) so I manage the dryness down there with topical products and the decreased libido with 100% natural pills (not testosterone, which is expensive). I started the pills a few weeks ago and they take two to three months to show effects, so I still don’t know if they’ll work, but I am hopeful.

Sometimes I miss the strong body I used to have, a body that rarely got sick, had not gone through any injuries or major illnesses, recovered fast from exertion, could eat whatever it pleased, and got up in the morning without even thinking about joints or muscles. But the main thing is that I still have a body. I am still alive.

Because that is the hardest part about getting older: the friends and relatives who keep passing away around me. They don’t have the fortune of suffering from a rusted knee or a delicate gut anymore. I carry with me the gifts they left me. Their resonance and my zest for life make physical setbacks tolerable.

I don’t take for granted waking up in the morning, taking the first breath, opening my eyes and seeing that I am here, still here, in this complex, hard, and beautiful world. I am still loving and being loved.

Carpe diem, my friends, because today is all we have.