A few weeks ago, a friend of mine visited from a Greek city and said the way of life and mannerisms seemed similar, so that’s something to consider! But you’re right, that living there for even 2 months is different compared to say, 2 years.

To caveat what I said.. it’s me that’s not compatible with Spain. The lifestyle is loved by many people, and nobody was forcing me to be there, so it was on me to either make it work or to leave. The sticking points for me personally were (aside from what I mentioned about food and alone time): - schedules. Dinner is indeed very late! But also nothing else really runs or happens at agreed times, or times don’t get agreed and things are on a ‘whatever happens happens’ basis. Personally I prefer more structure in my day to day life, such as making reservations and everyone showing up on time, and other countries/societies lean more towards this too - needing to be assertive all the time. My own culture and personality really clashed with Spanish norms. I’m an introvert and very non-confrontational so the social norms were totally incompatible with what I’m comfortable and feel happy around. For example, even at the self-serve checkouts they’d come on over start scanning things for you, which defeats the whole object of using them to not interact with anyone - care for the environment. So much single use plastic, not much push for recycling, meat in pretty much every dish, and so so much fast fashion.. I’m sure Zara has entirely brand new stock every single week. I prefer shopping on Vinted/thrift stores, bringing my reusable cup to the coffee shop and it being normal, and buying books second hand and again, other countries and societies lean more to this mindset too - the dating scene. Not relevant to you and your wife, but personally, a huge problem! I was met constantly with a lack of seriousness and intention. I had the best dates with men from North America or Northern Europe, who were all unfortunately only there for a holiday.