Never Retire: Errands in Los Angeles vs. Valencia, Spain
How we spent the same Monday — and what it cost us
Monday illustrates the stark difference between doing life in Valencia, Spain, and Los Angeles, California. I wanted to map out our Monday morning/afternoon journey with Google, but I couldn’t. Because many of our stops are so close together—and so close to our apartment—Google gets confused. Sometimes, it doesn’t think we even left home!
So, I’ll save the visual illustration for LA's more spread-out environs.
In Valencia, we—
Walked to the bank to pay the fees for our foreign residency cards. (We have our appointments on Thursday evening, which will be a night of walking that I plan to chronicle).
Stopped at the market and purchased four tomatoes, two carrots, two lemons and a massive bell pepper—pictured above—for 5€. We have settled on our favored market stalls for fruits/vegetables, olives, chicken and Italian products.
Dropped everything off at the apartment.
Walked to the local art supply store. You can get stuff here for the same price as or less than Amazon.
Had lunch at Oli Bar. 17.60€ for two sparkling waters, an Ensaladillaa Rusa and a pastrami bocadillo (sandwich) that we shared.
Walked home. Went downstairs and sat outside of one of the cafes on our block reading. I spotted the Amazon delivery guy at our door, so my wife walked over and got her package from him.
This is the way to live the day-to-day.
Here’s what the equivalent would have looked like—and cost—in LA.
Leg one—not terrible.
A longer, though not nearly as stimulating walk over a more considerable distance from home to the bank to the farmer’s market (only for a few hours on Wednesday and Sunday) on Larchmont Blvd.
This was one of the few mildly pleasant walks we could take from our apartment without using the car. Where we live in Valencia, there is world-class walking in every single direction throughout the city's core.
Then, to continue the day, you must pick up the car at home for leg two.
It was a 17-minute car ride—and only because I mapped this at an off hour—that would have taken 90 minutes on foot through some of the most pedestrian-unfriendly terrain in urban America.
On Monday, my wife and I spent 44.60€ on produce, lunch, and an art supply. In Los Angeles, we would have spent—at a minimum—$75 on everything, not to mention the cost of gas and the stress of driving.
Today was a light walking day for us in Valencia.
However, we plan to do hot yoga/hot pilates three times this week. We walk 1.6 miles roundtrip to each class. On Thursday, we’ll log about 2.5 miles to the police station for our TIE appointment, another 2.2 miles to HUNDRED Burgers for dinner, and just under a mile to get home.
I often discuss how living in Spain has exceeded my expectations and that I can’t picture living in the United States again. I think it’s because of days like this. We went into this new life not expecting miracles but a better day-to-day experience and overall quality of life grounded in objective reality.
That’s all you can ask for when you make a move like this—or any other major life change—an environment conducive to doing what you need, want, and love to do. The rest is up to you to get it done, hopefully on foot and… by bici.
Love the “walk the ‘hood” element of this.
So much to look forward to when we can get to semi-retirement