Relocated To Spain: Ask Any Question

Hello Everyone,
You probably noticed I haven’t been posting as often recently, both in the website and youtube. This ends right now but I’d like to explain what’s been going on. The reason is that I’ve just moved to Spain and these last couple weeks have been insane. There’s just so much to do, I basically collapse unconscious on the bed every night about 1AM. Fortunately things are getting sorted out and we’re little by little getting back to normal. I already have fiber optic internet installed, so we’ll get back to posting regularly and uploading videos to the channel. I apologize for not keeping up with it but it was at times impossible to do so. I’m also more delayed than usual in replying to emails as well so please have patience.
So, we relocated from Ireland to Spain. Before you even ask here are some of the more common questions. Feel free to ask away any other questions you may have. I’ll be posting a bit more about it and some of the replies may be in the form of posts or youtube videos.
What was wrong with Ireland?
Nothing really. Like a few other good places to live in it has many advantages and a couple disadvantages as well. It’s more about our own needs changing as time went by, especially after four years. Our idea was to live there for some time, experience the culture but eventually go somewhere else. Ireland is not a bad place to spend the rest of your life if that’s what you want. Keep in mind Ireland(the island) is actually two countries. Northern Ireland, a small part up to the northeast, which is under UK rule, and the rest is Republic of Ireland, which is a different country, what most people simply call Ireland. Most people from Northern Ireland just call it Ireland as well. Northern Ireland would be the part of Ireland that has a bad reputation. It is true that Northern Ireland is very much a closed society and mostly not welcoming to foreigners. Although this was of course a negative aspect as immigrants ourselves we didn’t mind much, especially with small children. As out older son turned to his teens this became more of an issue to keep in mind. The simple solution is going for Republic of Ireland instead, which is more open minded, with overall friendlier people. Then again another important factor was weather. It rains in Ireland (and Scotland and England) all the time. The weather is pretty cold most of the time other than a few weeks in summer but its mostly the lack of sunshine that gets depressing. We didn’t mind the first year, or the second, but by the fourth year we at last did miss the sun. That we wouldn’t have fixed moving from Northern Ireland to Republic of Ireland. Still, I very much recommend Republic of Ireland over NI. Both are pretty safe but ROI is just more friendly and modern, while NI can’t seem to let go of its sectarian past. Why did we go to NI ourselves then? Four years ago ROI was still recovering from the crisis and the economy wasn’t doing well, struggling with the bailout. At the same time property was cheaper in NI, we found an good neighbourhood and good school, and at the end of the day moving from NI to ROI is just a matter of getting into the car and driving a couple hours or less without even crossing an actual border or going through any kind of checkpoint when going from one country to the other.

Why Spain?
Spain is in many ways the opposite of Northern Ireland. You of course have much nicer weather, people are friendly and open minded.
The south of Spain in particular offers something you don’t find as easily as you’d think in Spain which is actual Spanish Language. Ironically, in many parts of Spain they don’t speak Spanish. Cost of living is very reasonable. Healthcare is way better than NI healthcare which is basically UK’s NHS, which is free but one of the worst in Europe.

“Spain!? Are you crazy!? There’s no work there, huge economic crisis, it’s about to collapse!”
This I got a lot of. While it is true that like Ireland, Spain went through its own economic crisis, just like Ireland it is slowly recovering and doing better.
How can you just move to Spain?
I have dual citizenship, Argentine and Spanish, This of course means we can live in Spain as citizens, making it a lot easier to do so.
If you have any specific questions feel free to leave them below in the comments!
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.