Art, bureaucracy & finding belonging

Welcome to Mallorca Living with Helen Cummins

Hi, I’m Helen Cummins, and this is Mallorca Living, a video podcast dedicated to sharing the stories of inspiring people who have made this beautiful island their home. For each episode, we’ll share their story. They’ll tell us about their journey, the challenges, the triumphs, the insider tips that make life here so special. Let’s dive in. Hello and welcome to Mallorca Living. I’m here today with Julie May. We’re going to hear all about Julie’s move from Canada to Mallorca. You’re very welcome, Julie.

Meet Julie May and her adorable dog Leisel

Will you introduce us please to your companion? This is my new dog, Leisel. Leisel. And where does the name Leisel come from? Uh, The Sound of Music. Um, the, the, the, the innocent young teenage gal. Yeah. And how innocent is she so far? She’s actually pretty good, yeah. She is so cute. She’s a big difference from my large dog beforehand. She’s the complete opposite, but she’s, um, she’s turning out great. I always thought small dogs weren’t intelligent, but she’s smart as a whip. She’s smart as a whip. Very good. So Julie, thank you very much for being here. And what I would love to share today with our listeners is your journey from Canada to Mallorca. So you have shared some of the insights with me already, and it would just be lovely to kind of take us back to, I think it was 2020. It was when, when life changed for you, let’s say. Well, I think that year life changed for everybody. Absolutely, absolutely, which definitely played a role, uh, for me, um, because I could tell that, uh, change, uh, needed to happen for me.

Julie’s journey: from Canada to Mallorca

Um, where I was loving where I was living, I was in the wine region of, um, British Columbia, which is a stunning area. Sort of, is that where you were originally from? No, I’m originally from Vancouver, just five miles west or five hours west by car. And, um, I moved to, uh, the wine region eight years previously because I was with a mate that didn’t want to live in a city and we were looking where we would would live. And, uh, the wine region is stunning. In fact, New York Times wrote it up as the new Napa Valley. Oh, wow. So it’s, it was beautiful and, um, we both agreed on that area and we made life there. Um, I was painting and, um, renovating a home, uh, that, you know, swinging the hammer, uh, not hiring trades, but I was actually doing the work. But your, your background is in interior design. Yeah, yeah. So I was able to do up all the plans and see what I wanted to do with the house. So that was a big part of our time there. It took a couple of years. At any rate, during, um, 2020 when COVID, um, sort of the tail end of that happened, I could just, I just felt that I needed to shift. Um, my community was pretty much shut down and, um, I didn’t feel, um, that that community worked for me anymore. I had also split from my partner and it was time for a move. And I’m sort of, I’ve lived in other areas, Germany. In my 20s, I did something similar. I just sort of got up one day and said, “It’s time for a change.” And I chose, picked a point, point on the map, which happened to be Munich and went there and lived and worked. Your, just to clarify, your parents both are German. Yes, are German and they had immigrated to Canada, right? Correct. Yeah. So that also sort of just to say it helped you with your move here to Europe because of having a German passport. Absolutely, absolutely. And, um, yeah, my parents immigrated in the 50s to Canada, which was a large influx of Europeans at that time. It later on, um, in, in, in the ’90s, it, it became a, a large influx of Asians. Um, because Hong Kong was, I don’t remember the year, Hong Kong was going back to the Brits and a lot of them came to Vancouver. I mention this because I see parallels with the foreigners here in Mallorca and I’ve, I’ve sort of drawn on that a few times in my thoughts. At any rate, so I, I, I decided to leave and I was looking to see where I would go in the world. Can I just say to you when you say that like you wake up one day and you decide that chapter is done, let’s say, correct. And now I need to open a new chapter. Well, two things strike me. One is the clarity because as women, we kind of do fill ourselves sometimes with self-doubt. We make a decision then we go back and I think the other thing is the courage and the bravery to say, you know, I’m ready, I’m open. What are your thoughts on? Well, as far as the courage goes, I agree. I think to move through life without courage is tragic and I feel I came in that way. So I don’t take any credit for that. In fact, when I was four years old, I was on the roof having a ball while all the neighbors were with their arms out below. So I think I’ve always just kind of, there’s a German expression “Augen zu und Gas,” which means eyes closed and step on the gas. So I’ve always just go for it in other words. So I’ve always been a little bit like that. Um, the other thing as far as, um, as far as, um, uh, you know, believing in yourself. I, I, I think if the head gets too involved, you get into trouble. Um, I’ve noticed that in my life and if, if one has the courage, it’s really the courage to follow your heart and due to some tragedy in my earlier years, uh, within the family, I vowed to myself that I would have the courage always to follow my heart and that was a commitment that has served me very, very well. Because you’re quite a spiritual person. I think it’s one of the things that we’ve even bonded somehow on a, on a deeper level. No, of our the same view, we, we share kind of a similar view of the world. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I, I don’t know what to say about that. Spiritual is, you know, something for different for everybody. Yeah. But it’s like this trust you have in life and trust in your instinct and trust in your heart, right? I think that’s really what spirituality is when you pair it back. And then I think then, and then once you have that trust, I find the universe always tests you. Yes, just to see, just to see how committed you actually are. That’s right. Well, we’ll get to that subject in a minute because I know you’ve been tested quite a bit since you’ve been here. So just going back to finish the story of, of, of your transition here from Canada, you were, you woke up, you’ve decided to move. What was the next step? The next step was sort of, um, well, I wouldn’t say I woke up and decided to move. It was sort of a slow progression over, let’s say, a month.

Choosing Mallorca: weather, beauty, and stability

And in that month’s time, I, I just started dreaming. I do that a lot when I, when I feel that there’s time for a shift, I just dream and try on different dreams. I put myself in different situations and just try them on and see how they feel. And so I tried on the dream of Mallorca as well as other places. I was looking, I’m an artist, and so I was looking at San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which is also, I’ve heard from me friends, it’s a fabulous community. And, um, I also was looking at, um, Savannah, Georgia, upstate New York, and Germany, although Germany I, I couldn’t land on anywhere specific that I, I, that sort of struck out. So at that point, sort of Mallorca was the biggest draw. Had you been already to Mallorca? I had been very briefly with, um, a partner at the time. We did a 10-week trip house swapping. Oh, yes. Uh, because I lived in Hawaii, we would house swap Hawaii for all of the sort of the coast of Spain to, to explore and then just quickly popped over to Mallorca. My ex-husband was living here and just, I was here for three days. It was just a whirlwind tour and it was, it was nothing, I had nothing in mind about it. It was just part of the tour of, of Spain. So Mallorca from three days been of being here, you, you, it was on your radar. It was. And I mean, and it was, I mean, again, I had my ex-husband here who’s kind of comes and goes and we have a great relationship. So, um, it was on my radar and, and then so when it came time to make the decision, there was sort of factors in that decision. And, um, some of those factors was whether I would be able to get away without knowing the language right away. Um, and that, um, is possible here. Uh, the weather, uh, you know, why move somewhere cold where you can be somewhere bombing? I’ve been living in Hawaii and California, so I, I was getting used to my blood is getting thinner. Um, um, you know, obviously politically, San Miguel de Allende, I ruled out because the cartels and I just wasn’t interested. So it had to be have some sort of stability and safety and exactly, safety and stability. Uh, beauty is probably the number one. I, I say that la, you know, down on the list, but I would say it’s more like number one for me. I, I, I’m again, being an artist, I just, I’m, it just fills my soul. I need beauty around me. Um, so those were some of the reasons I chose Mallorca. Yeah. And one of the factors with Europe also was that you have your children are, well, you have one daughter. Yes. One of the other reasons was one of my daughter who is recently having, um, had and is have had, uh, grandbabies. So she’s in England and that’s a much shorter flight. It’s an hour and a half for me instead of, you know, nine hours. Yeah. So that also played a role. Yeah, for sure. Of coming to Europe. I mean, look, it, it’s hard to, for me to say which sort of the value of each role, but it, it the bill was fit, the more that I tried that dream on. Yeah.

Quick move: helicopters, dogs, and bureaucracy

So tell us, you got, I think from when you decided to when you moved six weeks, it’s crazy during the pandemic, which, well, there was a thing at the, I’m personally not vaccinated. I respect everyone in their choices and the the the government had said at the time, if you’re not, if you’re not vaccinated, you, you won’t be able to leave the country. This was at the tail end of the pandemic. So whenever everyone else was opening up, they were sort of clamping down and they sort of said that we didn’t know how long that, that you wouldn’t be able to leave. And I just thought the world’s a really big place. Um, so you had six weeks. It sounded like it was very harsh in Canada. It for me it was. I caused a lot of conflict within certain friendships. It has with me. I’m still bearing the, wow, results of that. So hopefully, so six weeks and I had a lot to get done. But I knew it was right because any one of those administrative tasks normally would have taken months. And I counted, I had seven or 10, depending on how you count, between tax filings in two countries, both personally and professionally. Selling properties, arranging containers, getting my dog shipped over, who was custom crate had to be made and separate flights to, um, you know, obviously selling the property. Um, getting my German passport in order. Uh, there was just a, a big list and it all happened really well. And then to get out of V, to get out of my area, Vancouver was closed off at the time. There was massive flooding that year and every highway to Vancouver was closed. I think it’s the first time in history. So I actually had to take a helicopter. Really? I put my dog and me in a helicopter. I said, “Look, there must be other people.” So luckily the company got a lot of people on board, so the cost wasn’t prohibitive. But yeah, I had to helicopter out of there because no airline would take the dog. I couldn’t fly out. So it was. And again, it was one of those things where if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. And it did. That’s incredible. It’s kind of an Indiana Jones story, right? So here you are. You’re. And then you land in Mallorca. And I, I, I land and I just, I just booked one. I booked, I thought I’m going to treat myself to a nice hotel and booked a nice hotel in Old Town Palma. And then I thought, and then I’m just, I, I had looked for an Airbnb before I’d left and my criteria was, I just want something beautiful. And I recalled, I, I, my, my memory is actually short-term memory is not very good. But I did remember an orange tram and I thought, where was that little town that my ex sort of took me to very briefly with the orange tram? And I went online and I found it and of course it’s Sóller and, um, and so I had found a B&B Airbnb in that area and it was only like two weeks after that I realized, “Oh, yeah, okay, this is, you know, I came down to Sóller and I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got it right, this is the memory,’ you know, it was all a blur.” Anyway, so, um, I never left Fornalutx.

Landing in Sóller, finding home in Fornalutx

It had everything I needed. So just to explain that, um, literally you have the, the bay, I suppose, of, of Sóller. So you have Sóller town, which is a beautiful town. You have the port of Sóller, and then just up at the back, up the valley. Up at the valley that you have. Up the valley you have, uh, Fornalutx behind Biniaraix, which is such a beautiful place too. So, uh, literally Fornalutx is kind of tucked in, isn’t it, behind just sort of before the, the, I mean, it’s on a hill, but it’s also big mountains behind. Yeah. So you chose to, to move to, to settle, let’s say. I got the Airbnb and again, I just sort of, um, you know, surrendered to, this is sort of the spiritual side of things. I just decided to surrender and to be open to, to what comes. And I heard that rentals were very difficult to get and I was offered by my Airbnb host to rent her property until I told her I was moving to Mallorca. So she said, “Well, why don’t you rent my property until you sort of find what you want?” Well, that’s kind of unheard of. I mean, that it was offered, you know, because they’re so hard to find. And so I went with that. And then I realized I didn’t want to leave. I mean, I had the mountains, I had the sea 10 minutes away. I had a small village, which was important to me in wine region in Canada. I also was in a small village and I liked the smaller village life where people look at each other in the eye and say hello. Um, and so it was time to sort of say, I think I found my spot. And ever since I kind of, which is something I often do, I’ve done in the past, I kind of keep my eye out and say, “Oh, would I, would I have preferred this, would this, or did I jump the gun?” And I still haven’t found anything I’d prefer more. Yeah. But Fornalutx is such a special place. It is absolutely gorgeous. And what I like about it is that because it’s a little bit tucked away, you don’t have the same influx of tourist tourists in the summer. I mean, of course, it’s a, a very visited place. In actual fact, I think it’s one, best most beautiful village in Spain a number of times because it’s so beautiful. But it’s kind of less known than Sóller, for example, which literally in summer, if you lift your foot off the pave and somebody else puts their foot down, it’s almost too much, right? Yeah. But the word is getting out. Yes, the word is getting out.

Living in a traditional Mallorcan mountain village

So, so tell me about, um, we, we’ll get to the part where you bought your properties and stuff, but just tell me what is life like in Fornalutx? I, I mean, I think what attracted me to the valley, I, I, again, I was recovering, I felt like I needed, I, I spent the first year healing, as you said, walking the hills with my dog. And, um, so there was a great appeal in the peace and tranquility in that valley, and I really felt energetically that that in that valley, um, I, you know, all the tiered stone walls, I could just imagine the people building them over the eons and the, you know, bleeding of the sheep and the donkeys. And, um, it just really appealed to me. So, um, so like, and the village itself is so pretty though and revolves around this little plaza. Yes. And at the time I was living up the hill, so I’d have to walk 20 minutes down into the village. Okay. So you were on, you were kind of out in the country out there in one of those olivars. Yeah. And looking down on the village, it was stunning. And so, so village life is super simple and which I like. Um, it’s, you know, the, the Mallorcans have their traditions, always lots of festivals and a slower way of life. And, um, and, uh, you kind of go with the flow. I’ve, I’ve ended up again, great flow for me, a, a space came up for my studio. And so I, I grabbed that opportunity. So, but it’s the most beautiful space because the steps now go, well, the location, the space could be, um, you know. Yeah, but it’s cute and it’s very nice and you work there and it’s like a working studio. So it’s a gallery exhibiting your work, but it’s also, and it’s such a, I mean, it must feel very good to work there. Amazing. After years of being tucked away, it’s just really nice to hear again village life, the buzz of the plaza, a coffee, a baby crying, chinking of wine glasses, you know, the plaza in, in, in our village is, is like the living room of the, it’s like a heartbeat of the village. Yeah. And so I love that.

Creating a life and finding community in Fornalutx

How about the locals? Have they taken, taken you in? Uh, yeah, you know, I have a really nice rapport with the locals. I, um, uh, I, I, I didn’t necessarily try to do that. Um, I’ve just, I think, you know, being respectful and honest and curious is kind of, that kind of thing happens naturally. Um, but it probably helped that I threw an amazing party the first few months I was there and invited everybody. Good. Um, but again, it was my 60th birthday and I just, I just thought, I’m, I, I thought, I’m going to invite everyone that makes a difference to my day as I walk through the village. So that was the postman, that was the barista, that was anyone that made a difference to my day. And it was the first sort of, um, party after COVID and everyone was thrilled to have the villagers and the foreigners together. It was a created a bit of a wave. What a lovely idea. Yeah, you’re a very thoughtful person actually. Well, it was just, I feel it was luck.

Buying property in Mallorca: lessons learned

So tell me a little bit more about your decision then to, to, let’s say, buy a home. So you’ve, you’re, you’ve rented to give it a try. You’re feeling very settled. People are open and welcoming. Yeah. And you’re, you know, you’re feeling life. This could be my future life here. Yeah. And then what about the journey to, to buy a property? That, that was pretty, uh, similar to how all the other operations went. I personally wasn’t trusting in the banks at the time. I felt everything was really volatile. I wanted my money out of the bank. Uh, so it was important to me just to get it into real estate as quickly as possible. So, um, I bought two properties. Uh, I, I bought one first and lived in that and, um, then I bought another one and I’ve moved and I now rent out. So the first one is in the village, in the village, on stairs, walk-in only. It’s, it’s an 800-year-old house. It’s super, it’s just super cool to live in a village like that and I enjoyed that. But at the time I had a really big dog, like just small, slightly smaller than a Great Dane. And so I needed some prop, you know, some land. So I just a five-minute walk, literally outside the village, which has amazing how five minutes makes a difference, but it does. And I’m, I’m, I’m rural. I’m considered rural. So that’s where I am now. And so as far as getting that, you know, to be honest with you, I was really frustrated when I got here. No, in Canada, you can hire a real estate agent and they’re your buyer’s agent and it has as much clout as a selling agent. And here, that is not the case. Well, it’s changing. We have started to offer this type of service, but unfortunately we didn’t call it, we didn’t know each other at that moment. Exactly. And I’m always very grateful to you because you always tell everyone you meet, “I wish I’d had somebody like Helen when I moved to Mallorca.” It’s super true. I think personally, I would have made some slightly different decisions, to be honest with you. I think I would have, um, I think I, I would have made, I, I don’t, don’t need to get into the details of what that would be, but there would be something I would do slightly different. And was that just because you would have known, you would have had made a kind of a more informed decision? A more informed decision, a perspective from someone that knows the island. For instance, I bought this property for the investment and the return I’m getting on my rent. I could have done better, like with an apartment in Palma, for instance. Yeah. And it would have given you a second option, let’s say. Exactly. It’s just and and it’s all okay and I’m, I’m, I’ll stick with my, you know, with what I’ve my decisions, but there would that would have been something I would have done slightly differently.

Challenges of renovating in a UNESCO-protected zone

And I think one thing that we’ve also talked, I mean, you’ve been as an interior designer and a lot of creativity, you’ve been very, very restricted in terms of what you could do with your, your other property. Exactly. So, and if you know, I mean, not to criticize, but it’s, it’s kind of if you make a decision, it’s really good to know in advance what you’re allowed to do, what you’re not allowed to do, and then you can make, you can go ahead, make your decision if it fits within that criteria. Correct. Yeah. I found, I find I, I’ve sort of, you know, I don’t even know how many homes I’ve done, but I’ve done a lot of homes where I bought them and made them fabulous, lived in them. It was all part of, it wasn’t to flip or anything. It was just part of my life and lifestyle. And, um, um, I’ve found here to do that has been really difficult. Mainly, I don’t know if it’s everywhere on the island. I’m in a, on a world UNESCO site, and so I respect that. But I, I, I don’t have a problem with it per se. Um, it’s just the one thing in my particular house that was lacking was the connection between the indoor and the outdoor. And had I known that I wouldn’t be able to do some things, I might not have bought the place. Yeah. And just to clarify that, because you live in the Sierra de Tramuntana, of course, it’s a very, very, very highly protected area, and it has a, in Mallorca there’s different levels of protection and your area there is probably one of the high, because even, even just changing, no, the, the, how do you say, the driveway, the driveway material, material, you, you have been unable to do it or making a window bigger or, you know, small things. Yes. Um, which would have seemed like kind of very, uh, little, very basic by my standards. It was so basic. I used to take houses down to the foundation and the chimney. Yes. And then really. Yeah. So it’s something to bear in mind that if you are drawn to this more traditional villages like Sóller, Fornalutx, Deià, all these villages that are really in the, the Tramuntana, the Valldemossa, they are really highly protected and, and a lot of restrictions in terms of what materials you can use, what you can do, and a lot of bureaucracy.

Construction, permits, and bureaucracy in Mallorca

A lot of bureaucracy. And then finding trades, you know, so, so as an experienced designer of, I’m sort of completely shied away from it just because I just don’t have it in me. I know what’s involved in doing it. So again, I would get, have recommend any buyers to, um, get the house you want and like right away, like as is. Yeah. I mean, there, there’s very good construction companies here and there’s good project managers, but for that, nowadays, especially, you need a big budget, really, because the prices for, uh, per meter for renovating or constructing, it’s actually super high because we’re on an island and because we have limited resources and limited workforce and so on. It, it seems like the demand exceeds by a great deal. And then also areas, I think area specific, I think finding something more towards Palma, this end of the island is easier than in the mountains. Yeah. And then there’s also, I’ve noticed, there’s a little bit of a political, uh, edge to it. You know, in my village, for instance, they would want me to hire village people. And can you do that? Is there language barrier there? Are they available? Can you do that? Yeah, there’s one contractor who I think is really great. But again, I, I, I, you know, he was out of my price point. Um, but he’s does excellent work and the waiting list right now is two years. Oh my gosh. Wow. So if you want, if you want to hire this construction company, you’re talking two years. Wow. Yeah, yeah. That’s a long time. So there’s a, there’s, there’s things to think about. Having said all that, um, it also affords you to drop into what is, um, you know, be grateful for what you have. I, and I am, I, I love where I live. I love my mountain view. I love, I’m five minutes from the villa. Like, do I really need? I’ve had these things in my life. Do I, do I don’t really miss them. Okay. Um, so, uh, yeah, I think there’s, it’s a, it’s a good, good opportunity to go within and look at your sort of your own values.

Banking in Spain: the power of personal referrals

There was a couple of other things that I know because we know each other. I hear some of the stories, um, the whole banking thing for you and the like. I know somebody recommended for you a, a, a particular bank because of the bank manager, for example, and he’s been incredibly helpful to you. And, uh, then, well, let’s talk about that because I mean, these are the practical, basic things that people need. And sometimes to get a recommendation, I remember when I started my business also, um, somebody recommended me, uh, my, my bank and my bank manager. And I’m still with the same one because in the end, these personal relationships or even having somebody just that you can go and talk to and ask questions and get some practical answers can be invaluable, right? Absolutely. I think more so than where I’m used to in Canada, where everything’s done by the book and to the letter and T’s C. I think I find Spain slightly different, you know, there is a little bit of more leeway. Let’s say, exactly. I don’t know quite how to phrase that. There is more leeway. So a personal relationship I found to be really important. Uh, and it was just luck that I, I found my guy. Um, so, um, yeah, I mean, the moral of the story, because things like that when you have a question, when you have any kind of issue, you have a, a person that you can go and talk to. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I mean, which never mind Canada or the difference between Canada and Spain, just in general, everything’s online and, you know, customer service is becoming a rare breed these days. Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. But so I, I suppose my point is to don’t be shy to ask for referrals and don’t, you know, ask for recommendations from friends or from anybody because getting that intro can be just such an invaluable, uh, support in the long run. Yes.

The Spanish driving test: a battle of memory and will

And then the other topic I wanted to, uh, talk to you about was your driving test experience because I know it was, it became such a big thing in your life. Well, I’m just finding in general, as I age, the short-term memory is, is, is not what it used to be. And I, I, I don’t know if it’s the fog from, you know, COVID or I, I have no idea, but I have noticed that, you know, in trying to learn the language, for instance, I have to hear a word a hundred times before I remember it. Well, back in my 20s, when I lived in Germany for three years, I was dreaming in the language after three years. It’s been three years now and I don’t even have the basics of the basics, which I’m a bit ashamed of. At any rate, um, so the driving, um, I, I didn’t want a lot of foreigners kind of drive and, and they keep their, their license and they just take the fine, but I, I really wanted to land here. I wanted to land here with taxes and real estate. I wanted to land here fully and, um, driver’s license was part of that. And so, um, because you had an international license? No, I had a Canadian license. Canadian license. Um, and therefore you had, you, you couldn’t just swap your license. No, you can only swap it with the European Union. I don’t even, and, and now they’ve allowed Britain to do it, but definitely not anything in North America or my understanding South America. So you’ve got to reset your test basically. Yeah, you got to reset the written and the practical. Okay. Which I’m sure many of us would never pass. Oh, man. Oh, well, and they don’t, I mean, I don’t have one friend that passed either or on the first try. So I was completely mentally prepared. Could you do it in English was important. Well, it is in English and everyone says, “Oh, well, that’d be easy.” But I, but the problem is, is the translation’s tricky. The other problem is, is I think, I think, but this is just a personal belief, that they write it in such a way that they do want you to have some wrong answers because it’s good business to come back. Okay. But that, that, that might be a bit presumptuous of me. Um, so I don’t feel like it is written, um, in your favor. It’s not uplifting and supportive. Okay. And so it’s a matter of memorizing what they wanted to hear. Okay. Okay. So you did, but you had to take a number of driving lessons and. Oh, I, I’ve spent a lot. But a lot of time, effort, a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of effort. But the good news is, is I got it. It was. But you got it on the first go round. I got both on the first go round. Yeah. I got both on the first go round, so it was worth it. But, um, what a commitment though. I thought that was amazing that you put in the effort to do that. I really admire. I mean, technically I had to. I mean, I couldn’t go back to Canada and renew. I wasn’t a resident of Canada anymore. So technically you have to. Yeah. So you bit the bullet and off you go. I just played by the book. Okay. So the next.