I am about to begin the long awaited blog about my trip to Torremolinos! But first, I need to mention that I am becoming scarily adjusted to the food here. I can barely survive a meal without eating atleast one small piece of French bread. On top of that, I prefer if lunch is served with soup as the first course. Also, I have developed a liking for a certain type (not all of them…just one or two so far) of Spanish sausage, yes the stuff I gagged on the first day. The other thing I gagged on one of my first days here was cold tortilla española, which tonight I ate, enjoyed, and had seconds. My choque cultural (culture shock) upon re-entering the States is already looking dismal, and it has only been a month and a half... What am I going to do without my salty chicken broth and tiny noodle soup at lunch every day? What about my quesitos? Cold tortilla Espanola? Fruit after dinner every night? Spanish sausage? Iberian ham???! Trina (fruit juice or soda…depends, lol)?!! And we cannot forget the delicious, amazing pastries they have here-EVERYWHERE! Where in Minneapolis can I find a chocolate sauce filled donut with chocolate covering? How about a flaky deliciously sweet bread pastry filled with nutella-like chocolate? Or churros and chocolate on every corner? Tapas?!?! Siesta?!?!! What about my daily café con leche?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I might have to stay here…or else you’ll all be facing a terrible grumpus for the first few weeks…Mom you might even have to come over here just to force me to come home, haha.
Ok! I’m done with my tangent. Torremolinos. Right. I went with my friend, Kyle and we stayed with Barb and John Komoroske, who are family friends and neighbors of my Nana (that’s “young grandma” for those of you who rudely call your grandma “grandma” ;) They were amazing hosts, to say the least. Our trip began with a night bus ride at 10:30pm from Toledo to Madrid. From the bus station we weren’t sure how exactly to get to the airport…so we explored outside. We went down into a subway station after looking at a map. We had no idea how to buy tickets, so after going to the window we were sure we got the right tickets. This was good, but then we accidentally exited the place…twice. Needless to say our tickets no longer worked to open the doors to get into the subway area again. We enjoyed a bit of reckless, ummm bar jumping and eventually got to where we needed to be. The subway was uneventful. Upon arriving at the airport we found our terminal relatively easy, then decided to sit outside it at a café for a while before entering since nothing was open past security. We had a café con leche con bailey’s which was delicious. After exchanging life stories we passed by security and found a comfy (bahaha or not) looking bench and settled in for the night like a couple homeless people. We didn’t sleep much, but the good news is the night passed uneventfully, and once things started opening we devoured a bag of potato chips (think 6am…) and had amazingly delicious donuts. Seriously, I’m amazed at how horribly even us fat Americans do donuts. Even the culturally thin Spaniards have better donuts.
The plane was relatively uneventful, besides some great turbulence over the mediteranean sea…From Málaga we took a taxi to Torremolinos, and were met by Barb in the lobby! We set down our stuff then went out for lunch (scrambled eggs and bacon and wine) with Barb and John. After that Kyle and I wandered the beach and managed to make it back in time to shower before cocktail hour in their room.
Torremolinos is beautiful. Gorgeous beaches that never end, and an adorable boardwalk along the whole thing. At one end is a wharf with amazing sailboats and yachts docked there. At the other end are cliffs (which apparently seem to serve as cat villages – there were cats everywhere here!). There were a number of guys who made amazing sand designs, which you could take a picture of if you paid them. They were amazing enough to do just that.
After cocktail hour, which passed quite enjoyably (we never ceased to be amazed at how fun the “older” tourists we met in Torremolinos were). Barb and John recommended a Chinese restaurant they liked, so we ended up being treated to dinner there. Both Kyle and I loved how John prepped us for this meal. We were informed that it included, if one wanted, a small glass of “blandy” at the end. We got a kick out of this, and of course John secretly bowing his head saying the Chinese word for “thank you” after the waiter left. Dinner was delicious as promised, and we headed over to the neighbor resort for bingo and a flamenco show.
Saturday Kyle and I decided to explore the wharf area. We ended up finding a really cool opportunity to go out on a sailboat dolphin watching. So we hopped on the boat. We sat in the front with the hilarious Canadians that were with us on the Australian-driven boat. After a while we moved to this hammock-type apparatus in the very front of the boat. I think this was my demise. All of a sudden, after the boat had slowed down for a bit, I didn’t feel so great. I’ve never gotten sea sick or motion sick, but I figured our pretty quickly what was happening. I crawled my way to the edge of the boat and quite gracefully ended up feeling better ;)
The Canadians commented that they were confused because I was out in the sun and should have been gaining color, but there I was losing color. The boat turned around to head back, so we switched to the other side of the boat to be in the sun once again (it was a tad chilly in the shade). Once again, I just didn’t feel the best. Again, it passed relatively gracefully. Oh an experience I’ll never forget. I really enjoyed the trip, as I love boating, and even though we didn’t see any dolphins I would do it again in a heartbeat. I just might sit in the back for a while every once in a while ;)
That night we went to cocktail hour, ate dinner in the resort, then went to a cabaret show at the neighbor resort. That was interesting, to say the least. Sunday we headed out pretty early, and took the renfe train back. I love European trains, except apparently they like to sell seats twice?! Haha there was a bit of confusion that I wasn’t really affected by, but the guy next to me was moved, moved back, and then told by someone he was in the wrong seat. He refused to move, since he knew he was in the right spot. Anyway, he was served a meal because of the confusion, and gave me the dark chocolate that came with it, so all in all, a great trip. I would however, love to return to Málaga, since we didn’t get to visit anything there, and I really want to see the Picasso museum!
Looks like there might be plenty of rain for our Andalucía trip this weekend…hopefully not! My host dad does love informing me that everywhere I’m going it’s going to rain. Tonight he went so far as to suggest I bring a canoe. The sad part is, he’s probably right as they have already experienced horrible flooding in both Cordoba and Granada. Jolly.
Tomorrow I’m hanging out with my intercambio, Arantxa (a 17 year old spanish female student here in Toledo – she’s hilarious. She talks to me in English, and I in Spanish to her to practice), and I also have salsa class taught by the Puerto Ricans! :) and maybe am playing volleyball after that!?
¡Hasta luego amigos! ¡Qué tengáis una buena semana!
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Hello - -was that mocking I hear!! Sounds like we will need to import a private cook for you when you return. Anything to make you happy - -that's been my rule - -up till now!!
ReplyDeleteSo much to see and do - -keep up the adventure.
You didn't know that lack of sea legs runs in the genes??? Ask your Mom about our boat trip in Mexico. All to see the "Booby Birds" and their droppings!
Love you!!
Nana (young Grandma)