One of the best things about Spain is that it’s not a landlocked country. For someone who has only been to the beach a whopping of two times in her life, this is a pretty exciting thing! I love the beach and last week’s weather was perfect for our first trip to the beach town of Nerja!
We had to wake up at 7 a.m. in order to get ready to catch a cab and get to the bus station in time to get on the 9 a.m. bus. This was hard because we had an eventful night and didn’t go to bed until tres de la madrugada. Apparently great minds think alike because almost every single CLM student was also going to Nerja that weekend. It was a madhouse to say the least.
Side note: Spaniards don’t wear shorts and flip-flops on a daily basis. You’re considered a “puta” if you do. This is what my friends were called when they walked into the bus station. One of those same girls also was given death stares when she wore shorts and a tank top to school yesterday. It’s one of the Spanish customs I refuse to get used to. If it’s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, I see no reason to wear pants and a sweater. I’m not about to die from heat stroke just because the Spanish refuse to change their winter wardrobes until May. I don’t get it. You’re a whore if you wear shorts on the street, but it’s perfectly acceptable to be topless at the beach. WTF?
An hour later I saw the Mediterranean for the first time! Just seeing the vastness of the water is really humbling. We finally made it Nerja in a little less than two hours. It’s a cute little beach town full of old people and ex pats. We bought some sandwich food and headed out to the beach. We went to the “secret” beach. It’s a little small, but it’s beautiful! Some parts of the beach were a little rocky for my liking, but it was still charming. Our little area of paradise!
After tanning for an hour or two we went to go explore the town. We bought gelato and walked around the side streets until we got tired and wanted to buy some drinks. We went into a little shop and from the corner of my eye I see a crazy looking guy with scraggly hair and beard stop and stare at us. I ignored him and walked on in. Apparently this prompted him to follow us in. He looked me dead in the eye and talked to me in perfect English.
Crazy Man: Is it possible that you were kidnapped as a small child and that you were taken from your real mama and papa?
Me: ummm… no
He left without saying a word. I guess he’s somewhat intelligent because he knew English, but why on earth would he think I looked like someone who was kidnapped? How could you tell what a small child grew up to look like? We saw him later walking down the street shuffling his feet. He looked pretty dazed and confused, so maybe he’s crazier than I thought.
We did a little more exploring in the rocks of the side beaches. In one of the side beaches there was a crazy looking man/woman hanging out in a hammock. It didn’t scare us but we were surprised and I really wanted to burst out laughing, but that would be rude. So we waited til we got out.
We spent the last 4 hours or so tanning and swimming in the ocean. The water was really cold, but we got used to it. All of a sudden some wave just came over me and carried all over the place. I looked like a dead fish flopping around on the shallow water. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t get my footing when another wave came and pushed onto the shore. I was flailing all over the place coughing up water like an old person hacks up phlegm. The water was so strong I almost had a wardrobe malfunction, not that anyone would’ve cared since the whole beach was filled with topless women.
We left about 6 to get some food and got on the last bus back home at 7:30. I thought I would have had a darker tan from being out so long, but it’s still quite a respectable shade of bronze. When we got home, I was so tired that I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. It was the earliest I’ve been to bed in maybe a year or so.
Palabra del día: it’s an easy one, playa, meaning beach.
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