6 Surprising Reasons a Village in Spain Might be Right for You — Part 2

After living much of my adult life in the most vibrant, interesting cities in the world, I choose to buy a house in a small Spanish village and settle down. People here often ask me in wonder, why, after having experienced so much excitement, I chose their small village. Here is the second part of my answer.

If you haven’t read the first part of this article yet, you can find it here.

I didn’t get enough alone time

In spite of not having a full social life in the cities, I was also hardly ever alone. When I was at work, I was surrounded by coworkers or students, when I was at home I was always with my family, when I went out to the park or just to walk around, there were always hundreds of other people out there with me.

I have an introverted streak to me and alone time is like a cold drink on a hot day. It revitalizes me and makes it possible to go on and create my day.

Here in the village, if I want to be alone, I just head out on one of the many nature trails and within 5 minutes the only things I am surrounded by are rocks and plants. Their energy does not drain me.

A Spanish village might be right for you if you like to be around trees, especially olive trees. If you enjoy the company of people, just not all the time it is perfect.

Everything was so far away!!

One of the great things about living in a city is the variety of things to see and do, right? Well, I found that to go and do things in a city, I either had to get in my car and drive for 45 minutes, or take public transportation for an hour or more. When I lived in Los Angeles, it took me at least 40 minutes to get to the beach, depending on traffic. When I lived in Brooklyn, it took me an hour to go see my friend in Manhattan. In Tokyo, to get to the cultural hubs meant at least 2 trains and an hour or more.

Now, I can get from one end of my village to the other on foot in fifteen minutes. Seeing my friends is easy and I don’t need to plan it weeks in advance. Sure, the bank is only open 3 days a week and the post office has very limited hours but that’s OK, if there is some kind of emergency and I need to get to the bank NOW, I can just take the bus down to the city and even with having to walk the last bit, I am there in less than an hour.

A village in Spain might be right for you if you enjoy walking. If you need to take a car everywhere it might be a challenge because parking is tight even in a small place. My village has 4 public parking lots and they are full most of the time. Even when I have a car, I usually prefer to walk because the streets are so very narrow and the parking so very challenging, I would rather hoof it for 15 minutes than endure the hassle.

Getting time in nature didn’t mean getting away from it all

I was lucky when I lived in New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Istanbul in that I could get to “natural” places within a half an hour. New York’s Prospect park is such a vibrant place. Ueno park in Tokyo is so carefully planned that there is hardly ever a day when some kind of flower or leaf is not showing off its splendor. I spent so many hours playing volleyball on the beach in Los Angeles, it was like my second home and from the balcony in Istanbul I could watch the boats on the Bosphorus all day if I wanted to.

The problem was that all of these wonderful spaces with plants, water and wildlife, were almost always teeming with people. Sure, I could block them out and focus on the color of a flower or the texture of a cloud, but for me, the whole point of getting out in nature is that I don’t have to block anything out. I want to be fully in the moment, taking in all of the sights, sounds, smells and textures of everything. I can’t do that if I am trying to carefully curate my experience.

Now, all I have to do to be absolutely alone in nature is step out my front door. When I look out the window I am greeted by mountains. I feel at peace.

A village in Spain might be right for you if you really appreciate watching the seasons change. If you like to feel the coolness of the river on a hot day and you don’t want to discuss it with anyone. It isn’t curated like a park though and sometimes a wild goat might jump in front of you or a snake might cross your path. If wild wildlife scares you this might not be your place.

It is important to note that I am 51 as I write this. At different ages, I would have had very different things to say about this topic. I grew up in a small town in California and I couldn’t wait to get out. As soon as I gained my independence I was off to Bogota, Colombia where I danced in night clubs crowded with the young. I was in heaven. In my thirties and forties, I wanted to be a respected professional and I went to cities where I could advance my career. I wasn’t in heaven, but I was fulfilled and felt good about myself.

Now, I seek simpler things and find joy in silence. I no longer want to go shopping, I would rather go on a long walk with a friend.

As you think about your life right now, what is it that you need? Do you already have it? Can you create it where you are? Is another place better for you? Just as you do not need to uproot your life to be happy, you do not need to stay somewhere that no longer suits you. There are millions of different lives you could lead and you can choose how many of them you want to live in your lifetime and where you want to live them.

For more about village life, but this time in a French village, check out Janice Macdonald’s post here.