dr_designer

If the OP is thinking of moving from Japan to anywhere in Europe, there will be more risk of crime. But my advice to him and his wife would be: accepting your one traumatic experience in Madrid, don’t try to avoid the negative, go for the positive.

I once spent 2 weeks in Japan, immediately followed by 3 weeks in Spain. I remember thinking that Japan was really interesting—but how much I liked being in Spain.

Only one person’s experience, but I think it would be matched by many Brits’.

expatasia

Fair point, my friend. You get in a groove living in a safe soulless place like (big city)Japan but Spain is far more enjoyable in most aspects, at least for me. Not sure about Mrs Expatasia though. Time will tell, she really likes Pamplona actually - medium size town. I agree with going for the positive as you say.

steviedeluxe

Pamplona's in Navarra, and from this video it looks to have fantastic scenery

HBG

As a long-term resident in Spain, and a fairly regular poster on this forum, I get the impression that many incoming questioners who are considering a move to Spain don't want to hear any bad news if it interferes with their vision of utopia in the sun.

We reply to them, helpfully and realistically, and they don't want to hear what we say.

We try and put off people wanting to buy bars in Spain and the next minute they're running a bar in Benidorm, going skint rapidly; we warn them off buying illegal houses and the next we hear they're moving to the CDS campo behind Fuengirola; they ask about crime and we tell them, and they don't believe us.

Perhaps they want to hear of perpetual sunshine with people riding around on donkeys listening to stirring flamenco music with no criminals in sight. I wish it was like that, and if it was I would write about it, but it isn't, at least not all of the time.

missile

We were in Pamplona in June. It is very spanish. Has a large square where we spent a few hours and a few more euros watching the world go by.

chrisfromusa

To me when people are like that,t hat refuse to come back down to earth and realize that Spain is not all about sun, beach, and sangría and is harder to scratch out a life there when you take into account it has a much weaker economy than UK, not to mention the glaringly obvious: language barrier, and yes there is crime! It's almost as if they are so desperate to move out of the UK that they forget those 2 important things. Those people need to remember that just because Spain is sunny and warmer than most European countries, it is no Australia or Florida by any comparison, they don't speak English in Spain simple as that.

Dick Dasterdly

To me living out in the sticks amongst the Spanish and learning enough of the lingo to get by, I find that fitting in with and learning the many positive sides of their culture to be a very worthwhile pleasurable challenge for the vast majority of the time, and only very rarely a negative factor, as some seem to view it.
Some only come for the usual sun,sand,sex and sangria, which can be quite nice for a while,...but not always very fulfilling in the long term.
I much prefer the full Monty,...to feel and be part of it and try to achieve complete satisfaction,...if you get my drift.

chrisfromusa

Yeah I completely get you, I went through the same as you as well adapting to the American way of life as well, I left my Hispanic ways in Puerto Rico and adapted to how people live here and it's great, it's great to actually be part of the community where you live, instead of being an outsider. You think that's where most people on here that get sick of living in Spain eventually, could be part of their problem? That they never fully integrated into Spain and always feel left out?

cricketman

Dont tell the people of Pamplona that, a lot of them want independence from Spain

Seriously, Pamplona is a lovely place and is rated as one of the places with the highest standards of living in Spain, along with the Basque cities; Vitoria and San Sebastian. Other Northern cities like Oviedo and Santander have a very good reputation also (which I can vouch for).

They are more expensive places to live than the South though! But there are relatively few foreigners.

dr_designer

Am I the only contributor to this forum who chose Spain for that very reason? At the time I came to settle here (33 years after my first visit) I could have gone to Australia, where my mother lived and both my sisters still live. I never considered Florida, since living among Americans would drive me to join those among them who pick up rifles and shoot innocents at random.

Spain is great to live in because it's so European, and so Spanish!

lynnxa

no

that makes 2 of us

missile

Pamplona is most famous for the bull run, http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/spani...san-fermin.htm
I prefer Zaragoza, perhaps because the name sounds so exciting.

I too prefer that spain has not (yet?) been anglified.

cricketman

Spain will never be anglified. Well as long as you go where Spaniards are and not where the British-who-are-not-interested-in-Spain settle.

Spanish culture has a rich and important history, just like Britain, Italy and France. These cultures have competed against each other for centuries and while they influence each other, they have always kept their own distinctiveness through good times and bad.

And yes of course I chose Spain because it is Spain. I dont like the thought of the Brits in Spain who try their very hardest to pretend they are in Britian in the sun, it repulses me to the very core.

Choosing a country purely down to the weather is incredibly sad

Madridboy

This cropped up at work recently and the people I work with think the same about all nationalities that come here trying to create their own country and laws over here. As one of them said.....if people don't like the laws, lifestyle and attitude in this country go back where you came from.

paintermujer

We went for our first and last sunday roast somewhere locally recently.

The jubilados sat behind us were talking about the game of boules.

They were talking of the spanish game petanca and how they were going to muscle in on the spanish and kick them out so they could play their boules. Very serious they were too!!

They spoke of nothing but England in loud swearing voices.

These people make me sick. They can shove their boules where they fit.