Diary of a Nobody

I recently posted the first part of the history of how I, eventually, came to live in Spain. It took longer than I had hoped, but that's life .....

San Sebastian by night [Photo courtesy of www.secretserrania.com]

The first night in San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa), where I arrived at the age of 20 to start my year abroad from university, was an orgy of cheap wine, pintxos and Santana on the jukebox. This led to the worst hangover of my life.

100% Inflation

By the time I was fit to drink alcohol again two days after our arrival in San Sebastián the price of wine had doubled to two pesetas a glass!  That’s one hundred per cent inflation!  The locals were up in arms, but we didn’t care, as it was still ridiculously cheap, less than 2d (<1p).  By comparison a pint of bitter in the UK in 1970 was about two shillings (10p).

Once we were billeted with families, the only affordable option, we spent the next three months enjoying our new surroundings and our temporary new life. 

Typically, mornings were spent on the beautiful beach of Playa de la Concha, afternoons at lectures and evenings in the Old Part checking out the range of delicious pintxos and monitoring the price of the wine, before heading back to our digs for dinner prepared by our landlady María Nieves, Snow White as we called her!

The three months went quickly by, after which we were left to our own devices for three months.  Some of my fellow students set off to travel around Spain, whereas I’d got myself work in the office of a local tour operator, DORFE, owned and run by the formidable Antonio Dorronsoro Feliner (Toni). 

This office role soon turned into a job as a tourist guide collecting British and Irish pilgrims from Lourdes in France and showing them the high life of this most beautiful of the Basque cities.

My Year Abroad Part 2 - Germany

After my six months’ sojourn in Spain, it was off to Stuttgart for a placement as a translator at Daimler-Benz, the luxury car manufacturer. 

But Germany just wasn’t the same as Spain and I missed the carefree, life-on-the-streets ambience of España.

***

Post-graduation - My Career Gets Going

After I graduated and started work as a foreign languges teacher in England, the next several summers were spent "repping" back in Lourdes/San Seb, when it was busiest and Toni needed "good people like you, Paul".

It was intensive, but fun. Too much adrenalin, booze and lack of sleep, but, hey, we were all young.

Then it was time to step back, act my age and to concentrate on being an adult, on the demands of my job in teaching and on my new marriage.

Getting to know Spain

Over the next several decades we (my wife Jeryl and, subsequently, our two children Amy and Tom) explored most parts of Spain through holidays, study visits and business trips.  Although the country changed dramatically and quickly after the death of the dictator General Francisco Franco in November 1975, Spain remained a great attraction for all the family. 

Over the years our jobs took Jeryl and me to Madrid (twice), Barcelona, El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona) and Oviedo (Asturias) for short visits, which enabled us to experience something other than the sand, sea and sun of the ever more ghastly development of the costas.

Jeryl even made an effort to learn Spanish, by attending evening classes. She became so good that our bank manager in Ronda said she had a better accent than I did!

B****d! Only joking. All credit to Jeryl.

© Diary of a Nobody  

Note:  The  original  version of this article appeared in The Olive Press on 3 November 2010:

From North Devon to South Spain in six decades - Part Two - Olive Press News Spain (theolivepress.es)

A revised version appeared at www.secretserrania.com on 26 July 2020: 

From North Devon to South Spain in seven decades… Part Two: After The Hangover - Secret Serrania de Ronda