’hethetehethethet boutrosboutrosghali’
So I was in Torremolinos. It was nice and relaxing and fattening. And it took me over a month to write this thing, but here it is:
The voyage sure as hell didn’t start well. I got a flu a couple of days before the flight, and the worst day was the day I had to fly. I had to sneeze about once in five minutes and I felt really fuzzy and tired. I woke up around 5 am, paid way too much for a taxi to the bus station, stood in the freezing cold for twenty minutes and then finally the bus came. By then I was too awake and nervous to fall asleep. After two and half hours I finally arrived at the airport. The check-in line was honestly over a hundred meter long, and we had to stand in the line for over two hours. It was crap. Also, I had some stomach problems (A nice way of saying I passed wind like a rhino for the whole bloody day. No wonder I always found a place to sit).
Anyway, the flight was supposed to take off at 11.05 am. But the plane had broken down and was somewhere in Paris… so in the end we boarded the plane around 7.30 pm. The flight was okay. I don’t like flying at all, and the take offs and landings are the worst, because my ears don’t deal with pressure changes very well. This time, because of my stupid flu, when we were landing my ears kept popping and my whole head hurt like shit. I was afraid my ears would bleed, and there was nothing I could do about it. When we finally landed (around midnight, eight hours later than we were supposed to), I had lost the hearing in my right ear almost completely, and left wasn’t much better. It was like hearing things underwater. You can imagine, when I finally made it to my hotel room it felt like heaven. And when I stepped on to the balcony I realised I could see the sea! It was love at first sight and worth every painful moment I endured to get there.
Luckily, by the next morning my ears were back to normal, although they kept popping from now and then for the whole week. I realized then that I could actually hear the sea, too. And in the morning light the view from my balcony was breathtaking. After showering I noticed my passport was missing… clever me. But I had just left it in the reception. Phew. After that little moment of blind panic I finally hit the streets in search of breakfast and entertainment. That first day I just walked around the city and admired the architecture, bought some things from the supermarket. There was a lot more variety than in Finland, and everything was so much cheaper. I filled the fridge in the hotel room with shrimps and cheese and booze. It was really sunny, some people were even tanning beside the pool. However, I was still a bit ill so I took a nap instead. In the evening I found a nice restaurant, ate and went back to my hotel to drink some wine.
The rest of the week was pretty much the same: eating, drinking and massive amount of shopping. On Tuesday I took a walk along the very long Paseo Maritimo, the beach promenade. I wandered around the harbor, ate some squid and got quite lost in some side streets. My feet were killing me by the time I was back at the hotel.
On Wednesday I went to Malaga. I still can’t believe how cheap public transportation was… at least compared to Finland. Malaga was nice. It was a lot bigger that Torremolinos, and more Spanish. I did some sightseeing, shopped a bit more and went to burger king :D
On Thursday I went to this street market. Bought shoes and a handbag. Weather was still very sunny and lovely, so I walked around quite a lot. I found the local botanical garden, by happy accident, and went there. It was so beautiful, all lush and green, even in winter. I even saw my first ever maze! There were some animals, too, mainly birds in cages. They were training some birds of prey. At least I think they were training them. They were kept on a short chain. It was terrible to see how they tried to fly away and instead just flopped back down.
Actually, they don’t treat animals very well in Spain. Small dogs and wild cats run all over the place. A puppy on display in one pet shop nearly broke my heart. It was way too big for its cage, and must have been bored out of its mind. I’m quite happy I didn’t go to any zoos.
Anyway, on Friday I went to Plaza Mayor, which is a massive shopping centre some ten minutes by train from Torre. It’s kind of like Keskinen here in Finland, except a lot… more. I only bought one skirt… and one pair of shoes. Oh, those shoes. It was love at first sight. They were Victorian styled, pearl colored high heels. Of course, I can’t ever use them, since even standing in them takes all my concentration. But knowing I own them makes me want to be a better and a more beautiful person…
Yeah, I’m a material girl, through and through.
The weather started to turn in the evening and it got very windy and cold. After a bottle of a very tasty red wine, I hit the town and decided to go to some bar or club. Yeah, well, I didn’t. It just isn’t something a girl does alone. Anyway, compared to all those elegant, carefully dressed senoritas with perfect make up, I felt quite the ugly duckling. And my “red wine, pastries and deep fried sea food” diet really didn’t do good for my curves. Before Torre, I didn’t even know that you could deep fry shrimp. Whole. With the shell still on.
Saturday was my final whole day there. I took a trip to Fuengirola. I must say, it wasn’t very exciting. And it was really cold. So I was there maybe a few hours and got back to Torremolinos. I had a very nice dinner in a great restaurant. I even had my first ever prawn cocktail. What a weird food. But tasty. When I got back to the hotel, I drank a bottle of red wine, again. (What can I say? It was so cheap! And tasty!) Afterwards I just wandered on the beach and thought about my past, future and life in general. Nah, just kidding, actually I just stared at the sea and stumbled around in a drunken stupor.
On Sunday I took a last tour around the city center, cleaned up my room and had some lunch. By this time, I was tired with spanish so I ate in an Irish inn. Apparently there’s something seriously wrong with my pronunciation since I had to repeat the words “ham and cheese sandwich, please” about five times :D
The flight back was uneventful, although it was about an hour late. The lovely Mediterranean climate had healed my flu, so no problems with the ears, either.
All in all, a great, relaxing trip. Food was fantastic, on the most part. Although I have to say the British tourists were very well catered for: nearly every place offered full English breakfast and even in fancy places everything was served with chips. By the end of the week, I had chips coming from my ears… But the sea food was marvelous!
The sea, palm trees, beautiful buildings, food, wine, peace, shops, cheap things… They were the best things. I made some decisions about my life, chose three things to concentrate on. (Yeah, I’ve failed already…) This trip did me good. Only problem is, now I’ve been bitten by a travel bug. Next place: Edinburgh, Berlin or Lisbon. And next time I want to have some company. And next time better be soon…
Have some pictures, too. I took a lot of them, but I was too lazy to put more up... maybe later.