Old love never dies: somehow I feel quite attached to Valencia

I realized that if sometimes I sound quite negative about my almost three years in Valencia it’s not because basically I dislike Spain and think it’s fun to criticize some many things.

On the contrary, it’s because I have very strong feelings about the country where I grew up as a German after my parents decided to move here from Berlin in 1968.

To see what it has turned into in the 33 years since I left in 1985 and the bleak future it faces makes me very sad. Some irritated locals suggested that I move back to Germany instead, though that’s even less of an option and shall be the subject of another article.

The view from the flat that I inherited from my father, where I spent most of my childhood and youth and that is located opposite of the harbor, last week was so beautiful that it made my cry.

The sunrise, offering different cloud patterns in the sky every morning, is so amazing that it can move even the most hard-boiled person to tears and definitely the best asset this apartment has to offer.

Nevertheless, due to high taxes, an economy devastated by the ongoing coronavirus crisis and its disastrous handing by an incompetent coalition government formed by Socialists and Communists, which resulted in laughable rental income for 2020, and a general lack of trustworthy people who could manage my property while I’m back in Asia might force me to sell this jewel.

Of course 2021 would be very bad timing for such an important decision, so I’ trying to rent it out through a professional agency recommended to me by a neighbor who works as a real estate agent.

Through his mediation, last Saturday an unexpected candidate suddenly popped up, but it’s too early to know if this interesting foreign gentleman with a quite particular background will become my future tenant.

The other day I watched a short documentary about Spain during the last decade under the rule of Generalissimo Francisco Franco (1892 -1975) and I had to take a deep breath.

You don’t have to be nostalgic about the “good old times” to understand how drastic the change has been since the Left came to power in 1982 and started to destroy the old society and its values step by step.

To me the most obvious phenomenon is the Dechristianization of a once fervently Catholic nation, with empty churches and the constant mockery of Christian symbols.

This deplorable custom isn’t unique to Spain and just another nail in the coffin of Western civilization, but that doesn’t make it more bearable and less painful to witness.

Taiwan, the only place where I ever felt at home, has also gone through a radical process of modernization during the last four decades. Still, the temples are full of youngsters all year round. So what went completely wrong on the Old Continent?