Have you already experienced the "I want to live here" syndrome?
First of all: We have invented the name. We doubt that there is a scientific nomenclature for the sensation that we have just described, but what is clear is that can change your life (and, as we shall see, even for generations to come). This is what happened to our four protagonists , aged between between 30 and 90 years old. Let's see if you feel identified with what they say... and you also dare to take the step to live in that place that dazzles you.
Find a motivation and go for it
FRANCE AS AN OBSESSION
Our first story is that of Laura Molina, a 30-year-old woman from Granada who fell in love with Grenoble when taking the scholarship Erasmus She has been for ten years. "I remember perfectly the first time I saw those mountains, the feeling of freedom and peace that inspired me. And it is that in Grenoble plans are not needed ; everyone gets their bearings thanks to the three mountain ranges that surround the city", she explains enthusiastically.
She liked this so much" charming student town at the foot of the Alps ", as she herself defines it, that she no longer returned to Spain . "Over the years, I moved to Lyon for professional reasons, but every time I go back to Grenoble I feel the same when I see that dreamlike landscape: I feel like I'm home ", she says. Today she works as a social media manager and even she has founded a family in France, the country of her adoption.
"More than falling in love with a city, I fell in love with a country , of a culture, of a language. And it is that when I was little a somewhat eccentric girl ... With nine years, my dream was to travel to paris . At 11-12, she listened to belle époque classics: Edith Piaf, Trenet, Aznavour... At 14, she dreamed of living in France and work as a correspondent for El País . When I signed up that same year for the Language School in Motril -my hometown-, she was the only teenager in french class ", she remembers.
Grenoble
STENDHAL SYNDROME IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY
Nevertheless, not everyone has it so clear from such a tender age. to Malaga Sergio Ramirez, the sensation came upon him quite unexpectedly as he reached the Basque Country. "I like cold and rainy weather, and when I arrived in the car from Blablacar, what I saw was basically that, added with all the green mountains, the lost rural houses and the loose animals by the Countryside; i felt like in a movie "he recalls." When I got to Donosti and I walked through La Concha from Zurriola to climb the Igeldo and I saw the whole city, simply, I knew that in that city I had to stay whatever ".
And that is what he did (or what he tried): "I wanted to stay and live, and in fact, and I was there three weeks , but I had to go back, because l don't know french, I didn't get any job in hospitality, as it was low season . a pity Of course, I took the thorn away from me, "says Sergio. It is clear that the syndrome also hit him hard: How many of us would dare to do something like that? "I haven't had that feeling anywhere else, and even to this day (this was three or four years ago) I would return to that city to try to establish myself there. When I went to London to live, I thought I had felt something similar, since, since I was little, I always wanted to go, but it has no point of comparison, "he clarifies.
Nevertheless, what exactly triggers that feeling, to leave everything to settle somewhere else? "What really made me fall in love was the treat with the people. In particular, there were two people who helped me a great deal when trying to establish myself: a lady whose name, unfortunately, I do not remember, but who was she owns a bar on Reyes Catolicos street, she pointed me to various places where I could apply for a job, and even she asked me for several resumes to be able to distribute them . Two days before I left, she and her husband they offered me their sofa to be able to stay looking for more without having to pay for a hostel. the other person was a girl i met at the blablacar , that she took me in those days to Hondarribia, Irun and Biarritz to show me the Basque-French coast, a brutal experience that I will always remember as the best trip of my life ", explains this receptionist who now works at the Petit Palace in Madrid.
Sergio, happy in the Basque Country
A NEW LIFE 10,000 KILOMETERS -AIR- AWAY
Changing course in France or the Basque Country is appealing, but, as far as it goes, it's within a computation of quite acceptable risks. However, the Andalusian Eve Cruz decided to go a step further and settle in a culture completely different from yours : the ceylonese "It all started in 2007, when I went to collaborate with an NGO after the tsunami. I was so captivated by the place that months later, together with a friend, we founded a micro NGO, with which we traveled once a year to do projects. Little by little, the link with Sri Lanka grew stronger. Over time, I realized that I was tremendously captivated and I decided to take a radical turn to live a life above 25º all year round, in the middle of nature", recalls this audiovisual professional.
She was so enchanted by the country that she decided not only to stay and live in it, but also establish a hotel in Hikkaduwa, KundalaHouse . "When I was in Costa Rica in 2000, it was clear to me; I would save ten years leave the stressful world of film production, and go live in a tropical country ", she explains.
Because it turns out the feeling of "here I stay" It hasn't just happened in Sri Lanka; she also experienced it in that part of Central America, and in fact, she was wondering where to found her guest house. "The concept was build some ecological huts on the beach to live a quiet life, offering yoga and surf retreats. Step by step, two years ago I achieved my dream: to finish Kundala House, with three independent studies , built under the parameters of the bioconstruction, and located in 5,000 square meters of jungle just five minutes from the beach. And we have already begun to test the "glamping" for next season...", this "forty-year-old" warns us.
But what was it that, in the end, made him decide on the country of Zealand? " such fantastic energy that emanates, but, above all, the exuberant nature and its animal life ; its impressive beaches for surfing and diving and the smile of her people. Well, the mountain region is awesome too. Phew, it's so hard to stick with one thing ...! However, if I have to choose a particular moment, it would be any sunrise, coffee in hand, witnessing the awakening of life. It is pure magic ", affirms the recent hotelier, who does not doubt that her experience will continue to be repeated with other foreigners in this beautiful country:" It is a destination that is still very virgin; now is the time to visit it, because it is changing fast, and development might steal the magic so special you have. But everyone I know falls for their traps."
Kundala House, Eva's private paradise
THE GOOD TIME THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
How curious are those novels from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th (such as the magic mountain , by Thomas Mann) in which we read that the doctor prescribed sea or mountain, according to the ailments of each one. However, it is not necessary to go so far back to verify that the influence of the weather can change lives. It's what happened to carmen polanco, a 90-year-old woman from Rioja that she tells us the story of how her family went from the inclemencies of the Basque Country to the warmth of Malaga weather; Just the opposite path to the one that Sergio Ramírez proposed!
" in 1968 , my husband Fernando went to Malaga for Easter by car, along with a relative. Passing through Burgos, he touched them a big snowfall . Finally, they were able to head for Malaga, and when they arrived, they went out into the street and They were in short sleeves until dawn. That upset them, and Fernando fell in love."
So much so that a few months later, they were preparing to spend August in the province "My son always failed a subject, so I told him that if he passed everything, We would go to Malaga on vacation. It seems that the claim worked, since he had none left ! So we took the car and stayed in the area for 30 days, during each of which we went to the beach. We were always looking for the ones were not overcrowded , which was relatively easy back then, because some were totally wild . We would prepare the food before, or we would make a paella there. We had fun remembers Carmen. "When we got back, I asked my children, ages 12 and 14, what what would you think of going to live in Malaga, and they told me: 'Oh, love, yes'. in January we were already living in the city ; sometimes, you have to do things hot ", asserts this grandmother of Malaga.
What was most impressive about that first experience? "See so much light and sun all the time , above all, because of the effect it had on my husband's health. At that time, in Eibar, there were many storms. you woke up and you always had to look at the time . Ferdinand was passing three months of the year well and the other nine with colds and chest problems, but after we moved in, he never had a cold again."
That was the key element for Carmen, her husband and their two children they will move to Malaga with nothing ; in fact, she had to close her butcher shop in the Basque Country , while her husband, who was a painter, moved his business south, where they lived in the Cadiz highway. "We've worked a lot," she says. That neighborhood was then an impoverished area that she, she admits, is now "much prettier"; "The city has changed a lot," Carmen affirms. However, none of this undermined his powerful feeling of "I want to live here": "We have been traveling in many places, but ** I have not been wanting to go live anywhere else ** ".
Before beaches like this it is difficult to resist...