How to choose a city. Beginner’s guide meandering thoughts.
How did we choose the city to move to in Spain? We haven’t yet. But the list is down to 2 cities now. 1.5 even.
The first time we visited Spain was in October. Seville felt weirdly familiar, cozy and chill, full of history yet modern. Beautiful old town, flamenco, a sleek modern tram running smoothly over the cobblestone streets, abuelos playing cards in the outdoor cafes. Night skyline from the top of Metropol Parasol with some wine and I was sold. Didn’t even make it to the Giralda. Didn’t matter. I loved it already.
Seville didn’t last on the list very long.
Consideration #1: Climate
We can’t have Texas weather again. That’s #1 thing I’m not going to miss and #1 reason I want to move. October is a great time to visit, but Seville gets Texas hot in summer. Yep, this disqualifies a good chunk of the Iberian peninsula. But there’s hope: The coast!
Consideration #2: Geography
Very much related to Climate but not quite the same. Since we get to ‘shop’ for a city this time, we might as well pick a scenic one. Coastline works well for that.
House Hunters International is a great way to get romantic about moving to another country. They have a number of episodes in Spain and we’ve seen them all. Plus everything in Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Singapore, yes, we are big fans of the show.
I feel like they had several episodes in Valencia alone. Beautiful city, just the right amount of popular with tourists and expats. Big, but not too big, lots to do, great beaches. The city of arts and sciences in every shot. It is still south, but coastal areas tend to be a bit cooler. Valencia and the nearby Alicante (beautiful views) hung out on the list a bit longer.
Consideration #3: Language
So they speak Spanish in Spain, yes, but almost every area has its own local language. In Valencia it’s Valenciano. It’s somewhat similar to Spanish, and has an official status in the region. This means that local schools teach in both Castilian Spanish (the default Spanish) and Valenciano. Last I checked it was 50/50. It seems the rules on how much local language is taught change a lot as local governments pass legislation aimed at preserving and promoting local language and culture, so there is no telling what the ratio is going to be in the future. This primarily applies to public schools, with semi-private and private ones having fewer requirements and more freedom regarding the local language.
We are (so far) planning on public schools for our 3 kids (several reasons, may be a separate post). Our kids speak Spanish albeit the Latin American version, but the additional local language would be an additional stressor. Also not sure about whether it’s really worth the trouble if we were to not stay in the region long term.
Valencia fell off the list, and we moved on South towards Malaga (too big, too touristy) and on to Cadiz. Back to Andalusia which doesn’t have a regional language as far as I’m aware so schooling would be easier. Yes, they eat the last consonant in their words, so “Gracias” becomes “Gracia”, yes Cadiz pronunciation is apparently extra difficult for an untrained ear to understand. But it’s all Castellano. Phew!
An ancient port city, Cadiz proper is a little peninsula – densely filled with beautiful historic buildings. At just over 100K in population it is on the smaller side. Very very sunny (a bit of a red flag here) and rather windy. Cadiz was a favorite for quite some time.
Consideration #4: Size
Where do you get information on living in any city without actually living there? Wikipedia doesn’t talk about that. Why yes, thank you for asking. I’ve been perusing Facebook (yes.) – Specifically Facebook Groups as a learning tool for years now. Anything you want to learn about – just search Facebook and there’s a group for that (Actually Reddit is better for getting straight answers – much more focused and to the point responses. But what’s the fun in that?) Facebook groups are usually full of both clueless beginners like myself and seasoned experts. Be it snake identification, gardening, language learning, or Spain livin. This latter subject matter gets a little subjective at times but still provides great insight into different areas of life.
Anyway, the question of integration into society came up in one of those groups. The consensus, after much back and forth, was that it is indeed easier to relate to and integrate into a larger city where there are people with a variety of experiences, some having lived abroad themselves, than into a rural village where people lived for generations without ever leaving their hometown. Not impossible I suppose, but I’m not sure it’s that fun being the only foreigner in town and sticking out like a sore thumb. (We are tall people too.) Now Cadiz is neither small nor rural, but it was the smallest city we have considered thus far and suddenly the “too-hot”, “pronunciation-too-strange”, “too port-y”, “like, where are all the trees?”, etc. all bubbled up. Cadiz wasn’t looking so perfect anymore.
So what do we do now? Madrid? Too big. Too hot. Toledo was soooo cute. We actually really enjoyed it on that first trip, but like Madrid, it gets too hot in summer. Barcelona was too touristy and too expensive (I think). Oh, and the Catalan language.
No one remembers exactly what happened next.
My husband, who for some reason concerned himself with the most neutral and clear Spanish accent, read somewhere that Santander was one of the cities where people spoke like that. I’m not sure if it’s actually true, but have heard that the south-of-there cities of Leon, Valladolid, and maybe Burgos are considered to have the clearest Spanish, so probably not too far from truth. Bilbao and Asturias came up in some conversations in the Expats in Spain group. My mom was reading Dan Brown’s “Origin” where the whole story starts inside the Guggenheim museum, and was telling me everything about it. I ended up having to read the book too. (He does a great job with historical references and architecture.) All this serendipity led to us discovering Northern Spain.
Part 2 coming soon…