Spanish grandmothers are taking morning shots of olive oil like Americans take probiotics, except their medicine costs €3 per week and actually works. My Andalusian neighbor has been drinking raw olive oil every morning for 67 years, has the bloodwork of someone half her age, and laughed when I told her Americans spend $200 monthly …
If you think you “know” the Canary Islands because you’ve heard of Tenerife, you’re missing the quiet one. El Hierro is the anti-resort Canary, and the weather is the kind that makes you question why you own a coat. January in Spain can be bright and still annoying. The sun shows up, but the air …
Open the windows wide, set the radiators smart, and let the apartment breathe. Five minutes later the glass is clear, the air is fresh, and the heater works less, not more. What looks like a strange winter habit is a German staple with a boring name and a big payoff. I copied one routine for …
The surprise was not that it got easy. The surprise was that “starting over” was mostly paperwork, routines, and a few stubborn choices repeated until they stopped feeling dramatic. The idea that you can be “too old” to start over feels logical when you’re sitting in your own life. You look at the calendar. You …
Portugal is gorgeous, and it can absolutely work. But if you’re a solo woman over 50 trying to build a real life and not just a season abroad, Spain tends to “stick” more often, for three practical reasons that have nothing to do with Instagram. Portugal is the country Americans pick when they want the …
Europe has treated the Canaries like a winter pressure valve for decades. The only “new” thing is that Americans are starting to notice there’s a place in Spain where January feels oddly… normal on your skin. In January, mainland Spain is doing its usual winter thing: bright sun, cold shade, that annoying moment where you …
Portugal is still beautiful, still safe, still wildly livable in the right setup. But as of January 2026, the reasons Americans choose Portugal are often the exact reasons they burn out and quietly pivot to Spain. Portugal gets sold to Americans like a cheat code. Warm, walkable, “cheap,” friendly, ocean, pastries, and a visa pathway …
I used to do the American thing where food turns into math, and math turns into mood. You know the cycle. “Good” day, “bad” day, and a weird moral scoreboard built out of almonds and regret. Then a very unglamorous moment in our kitchen in Spain snapped it. I was tired, hungry, and one minor …
(And Why It Might Be the Key to Better Digestion, Energy, and Mood) If you were raised in the U.S., you’ve probably heard this your whole life: “Don’t lie down after eating.” In American health culture, the rule is practically sacred. Lying down—or worse, napping—after a meal is considered a recipe for weight gain, acid …
So my cholesterol went down eating butter and my doctor thinks I’m lying. Not just butter. French butter. The kind that costs €4 for 250 grams and comes wrapped in paper like it’s precious gold and honestly at those prices it basically is. I switched from “heart healthy” margarine to French butter for 30 days …
Last week, I watched my kid eat a plain yogurt in Spain like it was normal food. No cartoon. No fluorescent swirl. No “birthday cake” flavor pretending to be breakfast. Then I thought about what “yogurt” often means back in the U.S. It’s not dairy plus bacteria. It’s dessert wearing athleisure. That’s the quiet mind …
The listing photos showed a stone farmhouse in the Dordogne, two hours east of Bordeaux. Three bedrooms, exposed beams, original fireplace, nearly an acre of land. Needs work. €45,000. My friend James, a semi-retired architect from Denver, saw exactly what the listing intended him to see: a dream waiting to be uncovered beneath decades of …