I’ve got to follow up on my recent post, Expat Coffee Talk – these are the days of our L.I.V.E.S. mainly because I promised you I would. But you have to read the post above, otherwise you won’t get any of what I’m about to share with you.
So what I can tell you is that the style of life in Spain is pretty much a completely different experience than that of Canada. I’m going to throw in the United States of America just because. I also happen to like the US (minus a few things to obvious to mention); it’s our sister nation so I don’t want to leave it out.
Before I continue, let me just say that I’ve been assumed to be American too many a time because people here me speaking English here. Because of that, too, I’ll be including the US in this post as well.
I’d also like to say that when I’m talking about Spain in this post, it’s always going to be about Madrid the city, unless I say otherwise. I live in Madrid, so I figure it makes sense.
One thing that pretty much differentiates Spain from Canada and most American cities are the beautiful palm trees. Need I continue? I could stop right there because that’s a big difference in alone. I live in a city, a pretty big one, and there are actual palm trees here. It’s so nice to see them. I, as a “cold” Canadian, think it’s pretty cool.
Sun. Say the word out loud, nay, merely think it, and you’ll have the sun at the back of your hands for days on end. You know what the even cooler thing is? That I’m not even talking about summer. In winter there is sun for what seems forever, day after day after day. Why call the season winter even, when my cold Canadian heart knows what real winter means in Canada? You want to talk about sun in the summer in Spain? Please, brace yourself because what I’m about to say is going to make you want to drop everything in North America and come here: The sun is around for weeks, weeks, and weeks on end. What does that look like? Come 8am, say good morning to the sun and expect it to stick around until the wee hours of night. I feel like it’s 5pm, as I’m originally from Halifax, but when I look at my watch it’s actually 10:30pm Spain time. It makes me feel like there’s something wrong with that picture. Let’s give it up for the Spanish dictator “_______” for doing something interesting in a positive way. You know what they about sun: less seasonal depression in Spain because we see the sun all year round. I just made that up, but it’s got to be true.
The list goes on, quite well, I may add. Stay tuned.
Palm trees and sunny days. This is the Spanish craze.
Signing off-
Shamim Sobhani
I love about Spain is that you can go into the sea around April and onward until October 🙂 it is so much better than i.e. Thuringen where it is raining almost every day, but I have to admit as a Hungarian I am quite used to the sun, but when I was living there I had to buy a new sunglasses in January 🙂
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I know what you mean. I’m going to the beach next week early April. The beach! The water will be warm already.
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soo jealous but enjoy it 🙂
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I love Spain, the weather there and especially the sangria. and let’s not forget the sun, the beaches, all you ladies there …
Mmmmmmmmm. I really like Spain. 🙂
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An iced cold drink on a hot summer day out on the balcony is amazing 🙂
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Pleased to meet you.! How exciting that you are living in Madrid – I can’t wait to read more.!! Thank you for the blog follow too 🙂
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I look forward to connecting more with you too 🙂
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I enjoy our weather in Spain too and live more south than you in Castellon area close to the beach, where I use to walk daily.
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That sounds amazing!
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I love it 🙂
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Aren’t there a few nice beaches in Castellon? Maybe I will visit this summer 🙂
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I live outside Castellon, more close to Tarragona, than to Castellon. I have seen many beautiful beaches here, but please check out, so you can assure yourself to find a beach, as you like. We have both sand and stone beaches here.
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Having returned from a three day visit to Valencia, I’m more thirsty for beaches more than ever!
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With myself living in Central Ontario I can very much identify with your words. Although I have never been to Spain, I have heard our “winters” would be much different here than what Spain would encounter.
It is springtime here now and yesterday we hit a “balmy” 6 degrees Celsius. With the sun out it felt SOOOO warm, and after our winter was like t -shirt weather. 🙂
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I remember those springs in NS. After double digits degrees below 0 for months, a mere 10 degrees felt like shorts and t-shirt weather!
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Hi Shamim, this made me jealous because Wellington, NZ is all rain for days. 🙂 I also wanted to let you know that I’ve nominated you for the Blogger Recognition Award 🙂
Here’s the link if you’d like to see: https://runningonliztime.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/blogger-recognition-award/
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Wow, thanks so much! Is there a use against getting nominated more than once? I did this last week!
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Oo good question.. I suppose that would be a lot of work to post again. 🙂 Congrats on being nominated already!
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I´ll see what I can do, but regardless of what I do, thanks again for thinking of me!
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Yes, even in the Banana Belt of Canada, i.e. Windsor (across the river from me, as I type), you don’t see palm trees. And in Spain I guess you can visit all those places with a sign saying “Ernest Hemingway slept (drank) here.” Ernie was originally from Michigan, but liked the sunny clime of Spain better, I guess.
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Ha ha, I guess Hemingway did prefer sunny days more and I don’t blame him! By the way, I have never heard of the “Banana Belt” of Canada. Does that make me an ignorant Canadian…? Thanks for the history lesson Tom!
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There’s a small national park south of Windsor, Pt. Pelee National Park. It’s a peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie and is Canada’s southernmost point. When i’ve hiked there, I’ve actually seen cactus plants. Must be the only place in Canada with cacti!
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How fascinating! I’ll have to look into that (google)
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I just came back from a week in Mexico, which was sunny all day every day. That’s quite a change for a person from Seattle, a rainy city that has been experiencing an unusually wet spring. I met a lot of Seattleites who were thrilled to be down there, but I the hot weather just made me wilt. I was born to live in Seattle, because I’d take cold and wet over unrelenting heat. I’m so glad that you found a place you enjoy! Thanks for the follow. I look forward to reading more of your blog!
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Hi Naomi! I know what you mean, I’m from Halifax, NS, where we have grey skies and wet weather most days. I feel nostalgic sometimes. BUT, all I can say that it didn’t take me long to get used to Spain’s sunny days all around! Thanks for taking the time to comment on my post! Looking forward to reading more of your blog!
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HI Shamim, I remember visiting Halifax as a little girl. We went to Montreal for Expo ’67, and then went on to visit the Maritime Provinces. On a very steep downhill, somehow the big aluminum cover went flying off our tent trailer, and we managed to stop traffic for while we recovered it and tied it back on. Looking forward to reading more of your posts too!
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Wow, I hope you enjoyed your time in Halifax apart from the cover flying everywhere! What time of year were you there?
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It was summertime. Every summer my widowed mother would take the seven of us on a road trip for the whole summer, camping and eating peanut butter sandwiches, and we would explore a region of Canada and/or the US. That summer we saw the Maritime Provinces and all the New England states. I loved Quebec, and Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton. You have a beautiful homeland!
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That’s quite a bunch of people! Yes, those places have their charm. I love New England too.
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Sounds a lot like living in Florida 🙂 Spain definitely sounds like a place that I should be looking to move to though.
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I haven’t really seen much of Florida but would like to go to the Keys. Do you recommend it?
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The Keys are beautiful, but unlike most of Florida they don’t really have a lot of beaches.
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Oh, ok, thanks for the info.
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