I’ve been in Spain a month now and, as some of you have surmised, adapting to life here has not been as easy as in other countries. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am very happy with my housesitting gig (especially the ball of fur currently curled up against me) and have zero regrets with coming here. I’m getting used to getting up later so that if I want to go out one evening, I’m fine with waiting till 8PM to be able to get food with my beer. I don’t mind the limited hours at the local shop. I’m grateful to be walking distance to a full service grocery store open all day. And, of course, I can communicate with people.

But I cannot get over the very rigid Spanish schedule that controls life here.

I went to La Cañada today to have lunch. Surprise, the restaurant decided to close today! That happened all the time in Mexico, but it wasn’t a huge deal as I’d have access to other options. But here, unless I wanted some variation of tomato toast, I was out of luck for lunch at 1:45 because heaven forbid someone wants a real meal at that time! So that’s three times out of three now that I’ve failed to get lunch at what is supposed to be the time that Spaniards eat their largest meal. I guess people in Almería don’t go out for lunch. I’m just grateful that I have easier access to grocery stores here, so a better variety of food than in Bulgaria, and am able to cook for myself a wide variety of meals.

So that was quite a hike for nothing (the restaurant is fully 4KM away), but I figured I’d make the best of it and pop into the produce store. Oh, great, they decided to close 15 minutes early. Same thing with the dried fruit store and the hardware store. AUGH.

And this was after I twisted my schedule today to make sure I’d be in La Cañada at a time when I could run a few errands…

I cannot live like that. Maybe it would be easier if I didn’t have a large time commitment to get places, but I am really resenting how much I have to live by the clock here. I have a rhythm to my day and I’ve finally found the place where that rhythm just doesn’t fit.

Moreover, Spain is so regimented that you can pretty much only buy things at specialist shops. They are starting to get away from that with the supermarkets and chinos, but they still don’t really have convenience stores, and opening hours are very strictly regulated.

I suppose that if I had to live here long-term, I’d get used to it. In fact, I’m not discounting living here long-term at some point because this would be the easiest place to get permanent residence in an EU country, which would give me freedom to travel all over Europe. But having been here a month, I can say that Spain is by far my least favourite place I’ve lived and has been the biggest adjustment in terms of making concessions my schedule.

But Spaniards, overall, are lovely people, truly. I popped into Mercadona to pick up some coffee and the clerk I’d asked for prunes last time I was there recognised me and told me they had brought some in! Like raisins, prunes are my junk food/major treat, so this almost made up for the restaurant being closed. Almost. 🙂

In unrelated news, it looks like I might have set up a sit in England starting in early January! I think we’re a go, but I’m waiting for the final confirmation to provide details.

Because of the major stuff potentially coming down the pipeline that I’m not ready to talk about yet, I don’t think I’ll be going to Morocco. 🙁 I really wanted to go for a week or two and have been doing extensive research, but accommodation there is surprisingly expensive and I’m looking at higher transportation costs than expected to get there (about 400CAD to get there and then on to my destination in the UK).

I’m still hoping for a last-minute sit to pop up or for my Fairy Godmother to make a some money appear in my Yule stocking, but I’ve had a lot of fun in 2016, probably more than in the last eight years combined, and concede that I really can’t do everything. My savings are pretty much gone and I don’t want to touch my cushion in case what I think may come to pass does come to pass. So, please, no more hint, hints about Morocco unless you want to buy me a plane ticket from Almería to Marrakesh on December 17th! 😉

But also, please do not worry. I’m being a lot more frugal now than I was even a month ago, but that’s not because I’m in any sort of financial distress. Things are just fine at that end and I am making choices rather than being imposed upon. It was always the plan to put the brakes on the expenditures once I got to Western Europe since my money doesn’t go that far here. It just made more sense to spend with abandon and do a lot of tourism in the Balkans and then hunker down for a bit and replenish the coffers. So right now, I’m in work mode, looking for sits to keep expenditures low, and slowly plotting my return to North America as pieces of the possibly big news start to slot into place.

Well, I’d better finish this painful job I’m working on and then head out for a caña. The tapas bar around the corner is such a gift!!!