brisca

Hi all,
Just thought I'd share some news about a new experience I had today - yet another example of why I love life in Spain

Yesterday, I was invited (by someone I'd only met once) to join a Club de Senderismo (trekking club) because she'd seen me out with my dog, and asked if I liked walking!

Being someone who likes to try new things and meet people, I gladly accepted.

I got up at 7am (!) and was collected by my new "friend" and 4 more of her friends. Imagine agreeing to just pick a complete stranger up in your car - seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do for these lovely people.

We met up with the rest of the group (about 20 of us) in the next town, before heading off about 50km away to start our walk.
There were people aged between 7 and 70, and every single person made me feel incredibly welcome
We went to a beautiful place, walked 15km, shared our lunch and laughed and chatted all day!
Everyone was concerned that I was having a good time (I was!) and wanted to know why we'd decided to move to this particular part of the country.
No-one spoke a word of English, and although I didn't understand everything that was said, I felt really comfortable and cared about.
The scenery was spectacular (we even had snow, which is unusual here!) the company was amazing and the walk was about enjoying the beauty around us and sharing the experience with friends.
There was no rushing along - people helped each other, waited for each other and enjoyed each other's company.

I am fortunate enough to be able to enjoy this kind of attitude to life in our lovely village; but to be able to extend it with a new group of people, whilst seeing more of this wonderful area and practising my language - well, I'm positively blown away!

Just wanted to share a lovely day!
(Wonder how my legs will feel tomorrow!?)

All the best, and may you all enjoy the warmth of Spanish friendship.
Sam.

Mitzyboy

Cool, nice story

gallerie9

Thats why we live in Spain

Danemad

Ditto Galerie... and that is why I love Spain and the Spanish. You would never get that in the UK in a million years! It is priceless, isn´t it?

poollounger

It is a great story and sounds like a lovely experience. However to say that one would never meet this in Britain is untrue....it may be rare in the big cities but I am sure there are similar experiences to be found in country regions. After all the post does relate to Extremadura and not the CDS !!

brisca

I agree with you poolounger.

Although there were many things about the UK that made us want to leave, there ARE still many decent people living there (after all, most of us have still got families living in the UK!)

Admittedly, our experience of Spanish people and their kindness/generosity is only limited to Extremadura - but I imagine in general (?) Spanish people are just naturally more open/less guarded than people seem to be in Britain nowadays?
Certainly here, there seems to be far less suspicion about people.
I think it's such a shame that the "quick to blame", "quick to sue", "couldn't care less about anyone else" culture seems to be getting such a foothold in the UK, that everyone is becoming insular and less willing to accept new people or opportunities
We moved from rural Somerset; and even there, I don't think I would have been greeted with such warmth as yesterday.

Glad we're here!

Thanks to you and Mitzyboy for your nice comments about the post.