Scams, Suntans, and Sand
Trip Start
Aug 27, 2001
1
4
14
Trip End
Dec 13, 2001
Benalmadena,
Spain and Canary Islands
Monday, September 3, 2001
Our trip from Madrid via train was pretty smooth... nothing out of the ordinary went down. Julia slept like a madwoman -but when doesn't she. We had the pleasure of viewing '102 Dalmations' on the train, but it honestly doesn't mean much to those who do not speak Spanish. The trip to Malaga took about 4 hours and then upon arrival we hopped in a cab and headed west for about 20 minutes. However, the trip in the cab for 20 minutes was 20 times scarier than the 4 hour train ride. I guess lanes and signal lights mean absolutely nothing here. It seems that if in doubt of signaling, keep it on at all times. I guess the bonus of the trip was that it didn't seem like our cabbie stiffed us out of any money. It was around the proper price.
The place we are staying is called Benalmadena-costa and as the name applies we are situated right along the coast
1. View from our balcony in Benalmadena
. It's strange, while Madrid and area felt like Canada, it feels like Cancún over here. Not as classy but definitely a nice place to spend a week.The place we are staying at is called the King Fisher Club, and it is one of 4 resorts that are all in one area called Benal Beach. There are 3, or 4, or 8 swimming pools at the resort, and plenty of vending machines with melted chocolate bars in them... Chad doesn´t like them very much. Our room is pretty cool, we have probably one of the biggest balconies in our building, and I think we are the third level or so from the top, so we have a pretty nice view. We spend most of our time up there, sitting around clipping our toe nails, and drinking....Root beer for Chad. Jordan and I (Julia) have become tanning tycoons, Chad mostly likes to stick to some good shade however. Kristen has not been feeling well, so she stays out of the sun more then she usually would...and she uses all the Kleenex in the building.
The beach is only a short walk from our resort, which is quite convenient for us tanning tycoons, the water seems clean, and there are minimal amounts of rocks in some areas...only some. We have spent most of our time at the resort however...the pool is just hard to pull yourself away from. Have not ventured over to the swim up bar as of yet, but I feel that I will need some quality time there VERY soon
2. From the balcony at night
.Yesterday, there was a bit of excitement on the home front. After our usual daily bit of wandering aimlessly, we came across an unusual lady. In fact, we didn't really come across her, she appeared out of nowhere. As soon as she saw us, she bombarded us with carnations. She was trying to sell them for 5 pesetas each. Jordan, Kristen, and Julia got away, but I (Chad) got caught in her vortex. A carnation was stuffed into my shirt and her hand went out for the 5 pts. I decided 'ahhh, she'll never leave me alone', so I gave in and fished out my wallet. Rookie mistake. As soon as I went into my change part, I could see her hands hovering over the contents of my wallet. Hmmm, this looks awfully suspicious. She was trying to use slight of hand to grab whatever she could get. I noticed this before she grabbed anything and shouted 'no', threw the carnation to the ground, and walked off. We haven't seen her since, but if we do run across her again this week, we've planned on giving her a round of applause. Why? I don't know why but we would love to see her reaction.
Anyhow, that's about all. We've booked a trip through the hotel to Gibraltar tomorrow. The hi-light will clearly be the apes. Anytime there are apes sitting on rocks and beggin' for food, it's gotta be a good time. I'll just be sure to be weary if they start offering me a flower.
Well, ciao for now and we'll catch ya later,
Julia and Chad
