Oria Recap
Our time in Oria and in Spain (for now) has come to an end. Compared to Portugal, the Spanish lifestyle was definitely more challenging to adapt to. Our hosts concurred and did mention that it took them a good year when they moved to Spain from the UK to adjust to that lifestyle.
For example, almost every store in town closes between approx. 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm each day, so tough luck if you run out of eggs at 2:05 pm! Most restaurants don’t start serving food again until 8:00 pm, and going-out life doesn’t start until 10:00 pm for kids and even later for adults!
Compared to the larger, more tourist cities such as Madrid or Barcelona, Oria really was more of a rural town. The good news about this was that we overall had a more authentic experience – everything from living more like the locals, to needing to get by on some basic Spanish, to the siesta time and the fiesta time, I think we got a taste of it all!
In contrast, and especially before we had the vehicle for the last week there, we needed to walk everywhere and overall felt quite isolated in our living and our lifestyle compared to the larger cities. Again, this was a good teaching moment for the girls for them to experience (in a simple way) what life would have been like even decades ago in towns such as Oria.
Using our imagination and talking with some of the locals, up until about 35 years ago, Oria really was an isolated town with only basic cart tracks or dirt roadways to access it. Now consider never having a vehicle, being rare to even leave the town, and living in such a place for your entire life! Oria is also in a large valley that seems to primarily grow almonds, olives, and grapes (at least by our observations) in addition to local personal gardens.
Travelling around town, it is also very obvious that it is completely walkable. As noted, we could completely picture ourselves living in such a place, walking to the butcher, the baker, and the market (sorry, no candle stick maker anymore). Now add in more local trade, travelling down to the valley, or up through the mountain pass to the major town to the north. It would be a VERY different lifestyle than today.
Further, we were also told how the cathedral in the town plaza (they had two churches) really was the centre of activity in the town. From hosting the weekly market, the cathedral’s interior was quite impressive for such a small place!
Now consider how would that change things when they finally constructed road access into Oria? Definitely more vehicles (on those narrow streets… yikes!), regional trade with goods and services from neighbouring provinces (and the world), and net immigration into the area.
Eventually, around 20 years ago, many UK ex-pat citizens came to Oria (generally taking early retirements, so around 55 years old) to the point that approx. 7% of residents are from the UK. That is nearly 200 people in the area if we look at the census numbers!
Unfortunately, some UK folks did not leave a great first impression (thankfully we did not experience any issues personally) but over time many have had to return to the UK (now in their 70s) because they didn’t bother to learn Spanish nor get their permanent residency under the EU. Then, add Brexit to the mix, and they could not stay any longer.
Overall, despite some of our mixed experiences in Oria (primarily due to our own choices – summer visit, no vehicle, etc.) it was very worthwhile to experience the lifestyle and the culture here. We mainly came to Oria for the community and it did not disappoint! We met amazing people, we socialized a lot, and the girls had the opportunity to live “free range” all month around the property.
We are happy that we came to Oria and we look forward to stopping back in when we’re back in the area come January!