Notes

A View From Spain

I've been blessed to have spent a lot of the winter of 2019-2020 residing along the southern shore of Spain. Occupying a leased casa near the center of an old city for an extended time, which necessarily involved engaging with sailors, such as commercially with shop keepers and so on, gave me a great opportunity to observe how daily financial life is lived at a place far from my New Hampshire home.


To be website link , I really do have a life outside of economic monitoring, but for purposes of this piece that I 'll focus on a tiny anecdotal contrast between the way people conduct commercial exchange in a corner of Spain and at NH. To further set my review here up, notice that I intentionally lived without a vehicle and had no data plan for 3 weeks, relying instead on public transport and WiFi (or even wee-fee since they cutely say there).


All these near-monastic practices aside, let me tell you a little about my provisional Spanish home town. Fuengirola, a little city of about 75K residents, lies across the southern coast about 25 miles west of Malaga, the huge city in these parts. It is in the autonomous region of Andalusia (like a US country ), which is the largest of these self-governing areas in Spain. Given that it was commanded from the Islamic Moors for approximately seven centuries that the culture and architecture is a unique mix of Christian and Muslim influences never seen everywhere in Europe. Andalusians have a reputation for being psychological and fun-loving. on the main page agree.


What is most evident is the way conservative things seem, at least to some guy in his late sixties. In NH needless to say we get in our cars and drive to big 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 homes. But here, the little "Mom & Pop" shops are alive and seemingly well. The sidewalks each day, except Sunday, are teeming with people doing their everyday promotion of vegetables, fruits, medicines, clothing, breads/pastries, alcohol, and lottery tickets (really large here).

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I have to admit that despite a clear inefficiency with moving to a shop for the bread, to a different to your veggies, and to another for meat I liked the quaintness and private touch of getting to know the men and women who worked those establishments. Levels of private service always seemed large and that I never felt rushed.


The cafe culture of Europe is legendary and it's in full swing in Fuengirola. People sit with family and friends for what seems like hours chatting on coffee and beer during workdays and weekends alike. Cafes and bars are everywhere float onto sidewalks. The jabber is lively and unkind and leaves a Yank with the impression that life really needs to be fun and dwelt with gusto. &quot; But it does. Police attendance is minimal.


The Euro is the currency. And now its worth is only about 10% higher than the US dollar. But, prices for many commodities appear lower here. I'm often struck by just how much value I'm getting for so little cash. Granted, see here now is more than in NH and I don't have a good sense of the prices of power and big-ticket items, but total costs seem cheaper in Spain. Additionally, this a cash-based society. My pocket regularly is weighed down with those thick coins (a First World issue, I understand ). Sure people use credit cards and telephone pay apps, but cash is still quite prevalent.


Here's my website: https://mrnodeitall.com/members/serverjune7/activity/265438/