# So now i am in Spain... again



## Anciana (Jul 14, 2014)

Arrived in style on October 6: with an ambulance waiting for me at the Alicante airport, 3 hunky nurses (male) securing my descent from the stairs. I fainted on the plane. Sitting. Did not know you can faint in this position. But I managed. Next spent almost three hours at an emergency at the airport until the medical team got my blood pressure down to acceptable levels. 

Meantime airport personnel collected my precious CATS and my other belongings and when I got a tentative bill of health, me, cats, and belongings were put in a taxi for a half an hour ride to Guardamar, where we were delivered to an aparthotel - one that accepts pets.

Since I was told to stay in a horizontal position at least for the remainder of the day, I opted for a bed by the pool, unaware that several one day holidays was approaching: a Guardamar holiday on October 7, Valencia holiday on October 9( Friday) and Dia de la Hispanidad October 12, (the following Monday) instead of grocery shopping, and at least during the first holiday day we were without sufficient provisions (food, cat litter). 

But if there is a will, there is a way: meals were taken at restaurants on a beach promenade, with extra fish dishes for the cats. They DID appreciate it - so much that to this day they refuse to touch ordinary cat food. Spain with spoiled cats ain't going to be inexpensive. tbc


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Anciana said:


> Arrived in style on October 6: with an ambulance waiting for me at the Alicante airport, 3 hunky nurses (male) securing my descent from the stairs. I fainted on the plane. Sitting. Did not know you can faint in this position. But I managed. Next spent almost three hours at an emergency at the airport until the medical team got my blood pressure down to acceptable levels.
> 
> Meantime airport personnel collected my precious CATS and my other belongings and when I got a tentative bill of health, me, cats, and belongings were put in a taxi for a half an hour ride to Guardamar, where we were delivered to an aparthotel - one that accepts pets.
> 
> ...


No, I didn't know you could faint in that position either!
What a shame to start things off with a ride in an ambulance. Please make contact with your local medical centre as soon as possible, just to be on the safe side, and make sure your mobile phone is functioning here.
Hopefully things will only get better from here. Are you looking to buy or rent and do you have the area you want to be already clear ? (I don't remember what you said in previous posts.)


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## Anciana (Jul 14, 2014)

Thanks, Pesky Wesky, but I am fine. They did all the checks on me at the emergency center at the airport. Only blood pressure was high, but they got it really down with no problem. Perhaps the dose of extra stress to manage the heavy cage with cats (16 kg in all) and two suitcases (one for me and one for cats, lol) from a taxi to the train from Sweden to Copenhagen and to the flight contributed, as I had a heart attack a few years back and was told not to carry anything heavy. But hiring help in Sweden is prohibitively expensive due not only to unreasonably high wages for simple services, but to all those taxes added to it as well. 

The funny thing with Spain is - as always - it's double Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde appearance.

I reserved my Spanish apartment for long term rental already in April, and two days after arrival, between the holidays I got the keys so I could move in. But no rental contract, which I got last week. They let me stay there without having paid rent (only a one month deposit in April) and arranged first a .... bank account for me, (not NIE, not a rental contract, but a bank account!). 

Only when they were satisfied that my income (pensions) is definitively satisfactory to pay rent and live in Spain, I got a contract and was asked politely (lol) if I could pay rent for both October and November. Apparently they live under an illusion that people who can afford it, buy and only people who cant afford it, rent, never having heard of wanderlust and not wanting to be imprisoned by real estate. 

Bills for water and electricity will start in December, when I come back from Sweden, where I go tomorrow to pack the stuff I want t take and supervise delivery of it to a removal firm. (No more attempts to do overextending manual labor myself, I learned my lesson!)

But NIE I first get (hopefully) in December, and first then I shall (hopefully) be able to get broadband and (hopefully) some British TV. My Scandinavian friends here have all got Scandinavian channels, but I see no reason to learn either Danish or Norwegian in Spain, when I had no need for them in Sweden. 

Improving Spanish (Castillan), learning Valencian (I am in the souternmost location where that language is spoken ? apparently by about 40% of the populaton - though I never heard anybody speak it, but the local Ayuntamiento names all the streets in Valencian only, so when I ask directions using the politically correct Valencian - carrer instead of calle, St Emigdio instead of St Emilio - I always get corrected in Castillan ) and not forgetting English -though it'll be increasingly British English instead of American English I am afraid, so at least let it be proper BBC English, nothing pedestrian. ;-)


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## Simon22 (May 22, 2015)

We're not far from you and have yet to need Valencian, maybe it's the places we go! lol


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