We’re here, Valencia, Spain! After six
months of planning, organizing, packing, tossing, staging, selling, moving, moving
again, and shoulder surgery we are finally home in Spain! We have a terrific apartment in Valencia’s Ruzafa
neighborhood and are loving our new lives in Spain. The graphic below gives you an idea of where
in the world/country/city we are.
The most-asked question we get about the move is “why Valencia.”
Through a ton of research (and process of elimination) we found Valencia ticks
off most of our wants and desires for our new lives. Some of which are:
- Affordability – The cost of living in Valencia is half to a third of what it was for us in Washington DC. We had a great life in the US, good paying jobs, excellent health insurance (through work), a lovely rowhouse in the city, but it was very expensive. A huge link in our golden handcuffs was health insurance. While we are not “old”, health insurance and access to good health care is very important to us. It is impossible to find good, affordable coverage in the US. In Spain, we found full coverage, no deductibles, no copays, no waiting periods for a little under 3000€ a year! …and its really good insurance according some of our new expat friends. That is want truly shattered the golden handcuffs and made this move possible. In addition, I’ve found food, both in restaurants and the markets much less expensive as in the US. On the other hand, energy (natural gas, electricity, gasoline) is more expensive. Luckily, we adjust our consumption of these by putting on a sweater, turning off lights, and walking. Full disclosure, we haven’t gotten a utility bill yet, so I’ll revisit this (and probably most of the above) in future posts.
- Little-to-no driving required – Valencia is a vibrant, interesting city, the third largest in Spain with a population of around 800,000. The city is very compact, very walkable, and has an extensive bus and subway system. Being downtown at mid-day feels like a mini-Manhattan, with it’s crowded, bustling sidewalks full of shoppers and office workers. It’s got a great, positive energy.
- Mild climate – Valencia is on the Mediterranean and has hot summers and mild winters. I can see palm trees from my bedroom window and there are birds-of-paradise blooming in the parks in January (that’s a big deal for a guy from Kansas.) Valencia has beautiful beaches about 20-minutes from the city center by bus or bike.
- Inexpensive options for quick and easy travel to other places – Many of Europe’s economy airlines (like AirEuropa and RyanAir) connect in Valencia and offer super inexperience flights to other cities in Europe. For example, I came across a round trip Valencia to Vienna offer for 16€. Granted, January is hardly peak season for traveling to Vienna, but you get the idea. Once we are settled, we want to be able to take advantage of spur-of-the-moment travel options.
Now for what’s cooking!
I am still getting
used to when stores are and aren’t open.
Many stores were on special holiday hours when we arrived, some stores
regularly close in the afternoons and reopen later, very little is open at all
on Sundays, etc. In fact, last
Wednesday was a holiday here, Saint Vincent’s feast day. Most everything was closed and we had little
at home for dinner. Looking in our
still woefully-under-stocked pantry I found rice and a can of sardines in tomato
sauce. …Bomba rice is said to be the
best for making paella ( I haven’t tackled a paella yet, but bomba is really
good rice.) In the fridge was an onion and some pork belly fat saved from some
delish cured ham we bought earlier in the week.
…that makes dinner!
No real recipe… I fried the pork fat until it rendered out
and was crispy. Then I chopped onion in
the fat until tender. To that I added
the rice, water, salt, a little chopped garlic and nearly a tablespoon of
paprika (which actually has flavor here). Twenty minutes later, I served up
some delicious red rice and topped it with sardines and their sauce. One the side is a little spoonful of garlic
mayo we use one our patatas bravas. It was
quick, easy, and delicious!
