I have moved on to my next destination in southern Spain by way of the Comes bus. At just about three hours, it was a pleasant enough journey, on a cloudy day. I thought I had an idea of what this area was going to be like but boy was I wrong. Here are my first impressions of Torremolinos Spain.
Underwhelming
I have arrived at my Airbnb which is located in the central core of the city. The area is much more run down and dreary than I was expecting. My Airbnb is a disaster, filthy and with a cockroach infestation, so that has not helped matters.
As I walk around on my first exploratory missions, mostly to find cleaning supplies and food, I see a dirty area of the city that has not had a lot of care and maintenance.
Beach
Wow I was excepting the google images of the Costa del Sol and what the current situation is couldn’t be further removed from those. I have to assume this is because of the recent flooding, but the beaches are absolutely covered with debris and garbage. I can’t make it to the waterline in most places, there is that much junk.
Up and down this entire piece of coastline, the entire 6.5 kilometres of promenade, all I see is this.
Tourists
Actually, hardly any and the ones that are here are seemingly all British. I have heard more English being spoken in the last few days than I have in the previous two years. Its quite lovely to hear one’s native tongue after so long.
I find myself eavesdropping unintentionally, just because I am enamoured with the fact that I can actually understand the people around me.
Most of these tourists are my age or older, have white hair and perhaps even live here in the winter months to escape the dreary weather they face back home. Akin to us Canadians escaping to Florida or Mexico each winter.
Sprawling
There are multiple areas to Torremolinos, its really quite sprawling and spread out. The old core where I am has a few very large and old apartment buildings, perhaps was at its heyday forty or so years ago.
Down at the waters edge there is the promenade where all of the big resorts and hotels are. This is divided into two parts, an east and west by a natural point. The east side, below me, is less attractive, less maintained and grittier.
The west side is much cleaner, fresher, and has a cute area to walk, shop and dine. That side is where I would recommend any future travellers stay, not here.
Well, I will be dealing with the horrible Airbnb, trying to make it livable if I can. The host has come and applied an insecticide, which I hope will do the trick. I was traumatized by the bugs in Bali and feel a little more prepared to deal with similar situations, because of that experience. Wish me luck.
