Ciudad Quesada is urbanization in the Province of Alicante, established in 1972 by a Spanish entrepreneur Justo Quesada Samper. Many nationalities live here. There is a famous golf course La Marquesa and aqua park. It is situated 6 km from the sea. Its unquestionable advantage is the fact that it has become our home for the nearest future.
I wrote here how did it happen. Now I’m going to say a
We moved on Thursday, the only rainy day so far. When our soaked baggage was transported to the living room of our new home, we walked around our estate and after that went shopping. We needed among others electric kettle, a pan, bed linen, vacuum cleaner or cleaning supplies.
During buying these things I realized that we really start from the beginning. Just a month ago we had all of that. But we left it behind. We took only what fitted into the car. Now came the time to start a new life.
Most of the thing we needed we bought in the Chinese market, which is one of the cheapest places in Spain, as I’ve heard. And they have almost everything, from the bulbs to the housewares (except vacuum cleaner). The bed linen we’ve purchased at JYSK, though. IKEA was too far away.
We returned after 6 p.m. and discovered that the fridge is not working. The worst thing was that we would have to drink warm Cava! (It wasn’t warm, after all. Room temperature was cold enough…)
The very first thing we did the following morning was to report the fridge problem. The new one arrived on Saturday morning. And it made me realize what a wonderful sound is that of the working fridge. It would be perfect if not water heater malfunction… It was Saturday afternoon so we had to wait until Monday.
Not to have warm water, especially when it’s not warm in the house, decreases life comfort. Simple activities, like washing the dishes, become complicated. But we managed and on Monday the most wonderful feeling was that of warm water on my skin. This is how a man learns to appreciate such ordinary things like warm water in the sink, the fridge, washing machine (washing machine at home is a luxury!) or warmth in the house…
I came to Spain with a fear of freezing cold. It may sound weird, but this fear has very real justification. Most houses in this sunny country don’t have central heating. There is sometimes air conditioning (with heating function) but it’s very expensive. We were advised to buy a gas heater, which we found on QuesadaTalk website. We launch it in the evenings and sometimes in the mornings as well. I don’t like
There are bars on the windows. It gives me a strange feeling of insecurity after Danish open gates or even lack of gates to the yards. But here it’s normal. We’ll get used to it. There are also outside shutters. We kept them open in order to let the light in. The neighbors, however, open and close them every day. After a while, we figured out that they do it to keep warmth inside. Makes sense. So now we open and close them every day. Just like them. I feel a little like in a dark bunker but it’s more important to have a warm house. By the way, different countries have different types of windows. Here we have sliding panes without windowsill and with a little switch. Unfortunately, not all locks are working properly…
There are small yards in front and behind our building. It is such a pleasure to sit in the sun, drink a coffee and look at your own palm tree! Tomek can play outside all day long, and Kaprys is happy to warm up his old bones.
A bunch of novelties:
- Many nationalities live in Ciudad Quesada, British, Norwegian, Dutch, Russian, to name a few, so English is the language of communication in most places. (It doesn’t make us happy though, because we came with hope to learn Spanish fast.)
- Most of our neighbors are older than we and there are not many children. The situation probably changes during summer holidays.
- If you live in a terraced house you can probably talk to your neighbor without going out. The walls are so thin.
- Quesada has all you need, supermarkets, restaurants, gas station, hairdresser, vet, playground and so on. The sea is near, the mountains are near. I go for a walk with a dog and there’s a wide open space ahead. Magnificent.
- Dumpsters stand literally on the street, secured with low railing against moving.
- Many dog’s owners clean after their pets which makes the pavements easier to pass.
- Intersections are often not well marked so that we still cannot figure out who has the priority?
- There are often bottles with water in front of the properties. I wondered why and kept Kaprys away. Meanwhile, I’ve learned that their purpose is to keep the fence clean from dog’s urine. I’m not sure exactly how it works, though.
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