A View From SpainPosted by Kamper Reddy on July 15th, 2021 I've been fortunate to have spent a lot of the winter of 2019-2020 living along the southern shore of Spain. Occupying a rented casa near the center of an old town for an extended time, which inevitably involved participating with sailors, such as commercially with shop keepers and the like, gave me a fantastic opportunity to observe how daily financial life is lived at a location far from my New Hampshire home. To be clear, I truly do have a life outside of financial observation, but for purposes of this piece that I 'll concentrate on a small anecdotal contrast between how people run commercial exchange at a corner of Spain and in NH. To further set find out more up, notice that I intentionally lived without a vehicle and had no information plan for 3 months, relying rather on public transportation and WiFi (or wee-fee as they cutely say there). These near-monastic practices aside, allow me to tell you a little about my provisional Spanish hometown. Fuengirola, a little city of approximately 75K inhabitants, lies along the southern coast about 25 kilometers west of Malaga, the big city in these areas. It is in the autonomous region of Andalusia (like a US country ), which is the biggest of these self-governing areas in Spain. Given that it was commanded from the Islamic Moors for about seven centuries the culture and architecture is a unique mix of Christian and Muslim influences never seen everywhere in Europe. I concur. What is most evident is the way conservative things look, at least to a guy in his late sixties. In why not check here of course we get in our cars and drive to large supermarkets and big box stores to purchase our things, as well as is increasingly the casewe purchase things online and have them shipped to our houses. But the little "Mom & Pop" shops are alive and apparently well. The sidewalks every day, except Sunday, are teeming with people doing their everyday marketing of fruits, vegetables, medicines, clothes, breads/pastries, alcohol, and lottery tickets (really big here).
I have to admit that despite an apparent inefficiency with moving to a store for the bread, to another for your vegetables, and to the next for meat I liked the quaintness and private touch of having to know the people who worked those institutions. Levels of personal service always appeared large and that I never felt rushed.
The cafe culture of Europe is legendary and it's in full swing in Fuengirola. Folks sit with family and friends for what seems like hours chatting over coffee and beer throughout workdays and weekends alike. Cafes and bars are everywhere spilling onto sidewalks. see here now is lively and boisterous and leaves a Yank with the belief that life really needs to be fun and dwelt with gusto. " But it does. It's a highly functioning, prosperous, and secure feeling community. Police presence is minimal.
The Euro is the money. And now
official source is only about 10% higher than the US dollar. But, prices for many commodities seem lower here. I'm often struck by how much value I'm getting for this little money. Granted, go to website is greater than in NH and I don't have a fantastic sense of the costs of energy and big-ticket things, but overall costs seem cheaper in Spain. Additionally, this a more cash-based society. My pocket regularly is weighed down with those heavy coins (a First World issue, I understand ). Sure people use credit cards and phone pay apps, but money is still quite widespread.
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