Spain

It's about 25 degrees Celsius here on the Costa del Sol as I type this blog.  While I haven't kept away from Spain entirely; I've had a jaunt to both Barcelona and Alicante in the last six or so years; I've deliberately kept away from Benalmadena and the Costa del Sol given the fact that I spent a lot of time here as a kid and I believed that "I'd done it all".  

Returning to a place that I'd spent 6 to 7 weeks of my life each year between 1987 and 1994 was odd; I calculated that the last time I would have been here was in 2004 when I did a few things for my grandad, and brought a close friend with me.  I had no wish to come back after that, but recently I had a hankering to walk down memory lane and look at some of the old places that I used to hang out in as a kid.

While the apartment that my grandparents lived in was in a tourist area, Nan and Grandad were sufficiently resident enough that we were relatively isolated from many of the touristy things.  I'm staying in a hotel here this time, and a tourist one at that which is a bit of an eyeopener for me.  I tend to go to places off the beaten track, so to be in a hotel with a large number of Brits is for me, at least, quite unusual.  I'm honestly unimpressed with my kinfolk - loud, rude and inconsiderate are all adjectives that come to mind, and it is a shame for me to see the Spanish culture being eroded by these idiots that come out here for a cheap package holiday.  Few people I saw could even order a beer in Spanish, and often all people wanted to do was lie around a pool and not really move outside of the hotel complex.  

My family have had a long relationship with Spain, and in particular Benalmadena.  In the late seventies and early eighties, my grandparents on my mother's side had apartments in Arroyo-de-la-Miel and Torremolinos.  Both died before I was five years old, and one of the apartments stayed in the family.  In 1986, my grandparents on my father's side decided to move out to Spain to live.  I remember the day that they flew out and how devastated I was, but the perk was that when the six week school summer holidays, both my sister and I were shipped out on a plane as unaccompanied minors to spend the entire holiday with Gran and Grandad.  Sun, a pool and a fairly long leash meant a lot of good memories, good friends and fun.