Torremolinos, Spain \ May 2,3,4

May 2
First thing I noticed right off the train was that the temperature has gone up by a good 20 degree and this made me a very happy girl. Spain is not a big country but the climate from North to South is so dramatically different. I had been cold for so long now that torremolinos has made a very good first impression on me just with the temperature alone.

Torremolinos is a suburb of Malaga really but it doesn’t feel like it is attached to a largish city. There is a defined beachfront, resort town feel here. Cortney is out for the count but Nathan and I head off in search of just what this little town has to offer and for some well deserved grub.

Food is not going to be a problem here, there is a café or restaurant on ever corner. I can already see that the English pounce on this place in the Summer. Every other menu I see raves of it’s Full English Breakfast (sausage, eggs, toast, tomato, and baked beans). Sounds great for my heart and waistline. Nathan and I were a bit worried we wouldn’t find food as it was three or four in the afternoon and we have learned by now that all of Spain shuts down between 2-5 to catch up on sleep. In Torremolinos the tourists rules and we found plenty to eat. Nathan dined on fried fish surprise and I ate whatever.

After a tasty meal and some wine we decided to wiggle our way down to the beach which stretches on forever. Torremolinos is on a hill so down is always to the beach (unfortunatley that mean up is always back to your hotel). Like I said there is more than enough dinning options here as well as shopping. I didn’t really pay too much attention to the shopping as I live out of a backpack at the moment and have to save ever penny but it looked like good times for someone down for a week of beaching. I can see Torremolinos as one of those places where you play on the beach for hours, eat, nap, shop and then hit the beach again.

The main boardwalk stretches on for miles and is lined with shops and food, all a girl could want. The news stands have newspapers from all over. I was very excited to pick up the International Edition on the New York Times. Cortney will be happy with all the English tabloid mags too.

May 3 & 4
I am going to call this one day as it would appear I cannot distinguish between the two days. That, my friends is very sad indeed. We arrived in Torremolinos just a handful of days ago as well. Me poor mind is going I do believe.

Today was beach day for us. Cortney is finally feeling better, not 100% yet but ready to recoup at the beach. Grabbed our books and made a beeline for the beach. Before making the big decision on a location to park our bodies for the day we ate. Surprise. Just about every beach front restaurant has a whole set up of beach chairs with umbrellas. I am not a sun bunny by any means so we decided this was a perfect option, if they don’t charge an arm and a leg for the pleasure of a cozy spot. 4 Euros for the day works for me. We picked a joint that also had king sized beds on the beach. The beds where 40 Euro a day but if you are having drinks you can hang out on them for an hour or two.

Very little happens now. Read, have a glass of wine and watch people fry their skin. Just about everyone on the beach must be out getting there first sun of the year. Don’t think I have ever seem some much pasty white in my life. Within a few hours those same pasty white bodies were a nice pink color…a couple more hours and we can feast. I really wanted to wander the beach with my sunscreen and help folks out.

(I fell terrible about it but I did take unnecessary photos of some interesting sunbathing characters out there on the beach. Believe me the tabloids wouldn’t touch these photos with a ten foot pole.)

Travel Day: Santiago de Compestela to Malaga \ May 1

Our train isn’t until 10pm and Cortney has nasty case of food poisoning. As seems to often be the case on Fridays in Spain it was a holiday, Labor Day I do believe and we were unable to keep our room as the entire pension was booked out. Thankfully the owner walked me over to a friends pension where he thought there might be a room.

There was a single for only 16 Euros and I grabbed it. It look quite a while as the little, old lady who owns the place can barely get up the stairs and has almost completely lost her hearing. Very cute and very fantastic that Cort can sleep away the day until our train….if she can even get on it.

After moving Cortney to her new digs’ Nathan and I had an entire day to kill. Don’t get me wrong, Santiago is a beautiful city with lots to do but it was a holiday and only restaurants were open. In the end Nate and I chilled out and several different cafes moving between coffees and wine. Not a hard way to kill a day really.

Cortney decided she could do the train thing which was a nine hour overnight train to Madrid before changing stations and jumping on another three hour high speed train to Malaga. The 1km walk almost killed poor Cort but she pulled it off. The train had sleepers (not for us unfortunately) and tourist or second class. Not a full train so tourist class worked out fine.

Jumped off train number one and had to get onto a local train to get us to Atocha Station where our train to Malaga departs from. Easy as pie except for the fact that Cort is still battling a nasty bug in her body. A ten minute train ride and an hour wait later (over coffee of course) we where in our cozy first class seats off to the sunny beaches along the coast of Spain. Only a few of us on the train to Malaga as well. Nothing wrong with Tourist Class but a First Class ride every now and again hit’s the spot.

Malaga is a decent size city (600,000) that sits on the coast of Spain. The beloved Picasso is from Malaga and he has a museum in the city. It had been a tough decision but we decided to stay in Torremolinos just south of Malaga instead of in the city itself.

OK. So we are on train number three now (train to Madrid, local across town, high speed to Malaga). Just one more train and we are there. Another local train down to Torremolinos. Even at the train station in Malaga you can tell we are in tourist central. The ticket machines cover all the major languages and you can hear the buzz of different accents in the air. All the sunburn bodies was a bit of a giveaway as well.

This last train was buzzing with activity. Travelers with there suitcases, backpackers navigating their packs around people, English retirees, and sun baked 20 something English girls with sunburns and very few clothes. We kicked back and enjoyed the activity especially the just over middle aged drunk Spanish ladies out for a mid-day booze fest in Malaga.

Found our hostel with trouble and put Cort to bed at last. It is now May 2.