Product Description

My husband and I dreamed of an early retirement in Spain. When we both suddenly lost our jobs, we decided to turn the dream into reality.

Thousands of foreigners move to Spain every year. What is the feel and texture of day in, day out living for these people? We searched for books on what it was like for ordinary, middleclass foreigners to live in Spain. We found books for tourists, books on how to buy a property, how to restore an old farmhouse and finding a holiday home, We found nothing about making a permanent move. Our search for information was in vain but we blindly made the move anyway.

This book is a diary of our first two years in Spain. The people are real and the events are true. The first years in a new country are always transitional years. Ours were fraught with excitement, frustration, delight, culture shock and exasperation!

If you are planning a new life in Spain, I hope this book is helpful. I wish you luck and happiness on your adventure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1643562 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 188 pages

Customer Reviews

Retirement dreams in exotic Spain
If you ever dreamed of making your vacation in Spain a permanent affair this is the book for you. Kristen Hestir's memoir of her two year adventure is fast paced, fun and full of the flavor of Spain. The text needed editing but it did not detract from the story. I look forward to a second memoir about her many years in Norway.

A MUST read!
This book is fabulous! I could not put it down. I highly recommend it for anyone who is moving abroad. It is a great read, informative & insightful into the foreign world that is Spain...I can't wait to read Kristen's next one!

Book of interest to those wanting to sojourn in Spain
Reviewed by Marcy Burns for Reader Views (1/07)

The author takes the reader along as she and her husband move to Spain. Having lost their jobs in Norway, they believed Spain would be both warm enough and cheap enough that they could enjoy an early retirement there. This is her account of living and buying property there. Although it may not have been her intent, their decision to return to the U.S. seems to capture the most important thing she has to say. Anyone who yearns for early retirement in some sunny, foreign country would be well advised to read this book. Idleness does not suit everyone.

It appears that writing the memoir may have been part of the plan. The author either wrote about events as they occurred, took prodigious notes, or has an amazing memory for detail. The 177 pages are filled with an account of events, times, and places, which overall seem to have been rather ordinary and occasionally dreary. The puzzling procedures during the purchase of property and a painful rash that would not heal are the most unusual accounts. Throughout the two years, the author seems to have often experienced conflicting emotions with likes and dislikes of the same experience being almost simultaneous.

With meticulous attention to a linear account of daily events, the book fails to portray the richness of the Spanish culture. That is particularly unfortunate for the reader who has not been to Spain. Readers need to hear about the people; make them and the places they live come alive! After reading the book, the author's husband remains a shadowy person in the background and the reader longs to really know him.

There are typos, misplaced words or incomplete sentences, and occasional errors of grammar. Overall, however, the author writes well, and the book may interest anyone thinking of such a sojourn in Spain. Still, the two years must have been exciting and colorful and wonderful at times, and she fails to share those moments in "You Have to Get Your Own Saint: A Memoir of Two Years in Spain."