[Photo attribution: Office.com, licence free]
We arrived here in the south of Spain at the beginning of autumn and started off with four months of language study in nearby Málaga. Early in December, with about seven weeks of language school left, we started to look seriously for a place to live in or near Alhaurín, where the Retreat Centre is located. Well, that turned out more difficult than we expected. There wasn’t much on offer, and the houses that seemed large enough for what we had in mind (that is, three bedrooms) were too expensive. We began to realize that anything we might find through a real estate agent was either going to be small or not affordable. So we changed tactics.
We decided to drive through the area looking for “For Rent” signs. Good idea, but we did not find any, except one, but we had little doubt this house was out of our price range as well.
At one point during this search we stopped to ask directions (the road had become so poor that we weren’t sure it was going anywhere). On impulse, and in pretty poor Spanish, Franziska asked the guy if he knew of anything for rent. He said no, he didn’t, but if we’d give him our phone number, he’d ask around and get back to us.
To be honest, we did not expect to ever hear from him again, but within a day he called to tell us he had found a house. So we went, an 80 kilometre drive both ways, quite far to go in order to be disappointed. It was far too small and very dark, precisely what we did not want. So we had to decline.
Soon after he called us a second time: he had found another house. This time our expectations were close to zero. It was not like our Spanish was sufficient to explain him in detail what we were actually looking for beyond a house with three bedrooms. The near absent chance of success did not seem to warrant any more 80 kilometre drives. But we decided to go once more and see what he had found.
At least the first impression of this house was better: it had space around it and several palm trees and other trees in front of it. Inside it seemed a bit dark and quite cold. (But then, rainy days in December are not good days to go look at houses.) The owners seemed to be in a rather unfriendly mood. Understandably so, we found out later, since the previous renter had just left after not paying rent, leaving his garbage, but taking with him things of value that actually belonged to the house.
Anyway, we did not feel very positive on the spot, but realized later, on the way home, that this house fulfilled virtually all our wishes and requirements. This was when fear set in. What were we doing, moving into a place so much larger than what we needed for ourselves, in the Spanish countryside miles away from town?? But then, wasn’t this exactly what we had wanted for so many years (not the Spanish countryside, but a house with garden and SPACE)?
Since it was a big step to take, we called two days before Christmas and asked if we could come and look at the house again and talk about it (the rent was still a bit high). We were hoping to do so the week after Christmas. So when did we want to come, today, tomorrow, Christmas day? We took the 25th, since we would be headed in the direction anyway. And we took the money for a deposit with us, just in case.
So the house we would never ever have found if Franziska hadn’t asked a total stranger in the middle of nowhere if there were any houses for rent – became our Christmas gift that year.