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There are around 400,000 British citizens officially registered as living in Spain , although some estimates say the true figure could be closer to a million. They're drawn by the milder weather , laid-back lifestyle and – it must be admitted – wealth of other English-speakers making the language barrier less of a problem. But while they gain a great deal from relocating to Spain, many expats admit that there are also things that they miss. Mark Danby, who is documenting his life in the Costa Del Sol on his Tapas Guy YouTube channel , tells the MEN that it's only on visits home that he realises there are three things he misses. The first, is the classic British establishment – a pub. "One thing I do really miss, as much as I like the Spanish bars, it's a good old English pub," he explained. "Every time I go back, the first thing I want to do is go into a pub and have a pint of beer." There are, though, signs a slice of the UK pub scene is reaching Spain. Wetherspoons recently opened their first pub in the country , in Alicante Airport. There's no doubt the Spanish boast an impressive, and delicious, range of food – from tapas to paella. But Mark admits missing the home comforts of a good old-fashioned fish and chips. He continued: "You can't get good fish and chips here... maybe if you go to Gibraltar, I've had some decent fish and chips, but you can't get fish and chips round here that are decent. Fish and chips, steak pie and chips, stuff like that." And of course, Mark doesn't see as much of his family as he might like, although, he adds, his 29-year-old son is also planning to relocate to the Costa Del Sol. Mark explains that, despite the loss of international flexibility that came about because of Brexit, it's still possible to move to a European country under certain conditions: "I'm on what's called the digital nomad visa," he explains. While he lives in Spain, he effectively works in the UK thanks to a fast internet connection. He went on: "You can work, but you can't work for a Spanish company, or anywhere in Spain. "So I can do remote work and so can my, so can my son. So we can be located out here, and we're not taking any Spanish person's job away from them, we have an income, and we can work remotely." In Mark's latest video, he reflects on how it's all too easy to get set in your ways and lose your sense of adventure, explaining: "One of the strangest things about getting older is the older you get, the harder change becomes. Not necessarily because life gets worse, but because the life we know starts to feel much safer." He says he moved to Spain about 18 months ago, but recently went back to visit his old hometown in the UK for the first time in quite a while. "I started to think quite a lot about this because part of me feels deeply connected to it. The streets, the routines, the familiarity," he says. "When you have lived in a place for decades, it becomes part of who you are, part of your DNA. And walking around there again reminded me how easy it is for years to quietly pass by without much really changing in your life." He tells us that the "big leap of faith" of uprooting your entire life and moving to another country isn't for everyone, adding: "Some people find out it's not for them. They find out that living here is not the same as being on holiday. It's very different in winter than it is in the summer." That said, Mark says that in many ways he prefers the Spanish winter to the summers, which can be scorchingly hot. "it's just too hot to do everything," he says. "You've got to turn your life around. "I've got a dog, so it's early morning walks, it's walks after sunset. You can't really go out and do anything during the day. It's too hot to walk anywhere. So you live your life in the evenings and late at night." Because of that, Mark adds, he understands how Spaniards developed their custom of having a mid-afternoon nap and eating their evening meal quite late in the day. However, while Mark has embraced the Spanish culture he hasn't, as yet, picked up much of the language: "I do make an effort," he says, "not as much as I should. "But to be honest, you don't really need it on the Costa del Sal, because everybody speaks English. There's lots of English people and and ...there's a lot of Dutch and Germans and Belgians, and most of them speak English. I'm close to La Duquesa, which is an international port. Everybody speaks English. So, you know, there's nothing forcing me. The only problem is when you come across bureaucracy.: Even there, he says, some aspects of living in Spain, such as buying a house or insuring your car, are far simpler than you might expect. He adds that, as it stands, he has no plans on returning to the UK: "I'm not planning on coming back, but you never know, do you? I mean, you never know what life's going to throw at you, health wise and all the rest of it."
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