Viva España!

I'm considering turning on the heat this morning because I'm freezing after a week in the sun on the Costa Blanca in southern Spain. We're not normally big on beach vacations, but the apartment we stayed in was a bargain (a friend owns it) so we couldn't pass it up.

The beach in the picture is Benidorm, which is not the beach where we spent the week. But John insisted that we go there for the day so that I could experience it. Now, I'd heard lots of things about Benidorm: crawling with English, cheap booze, bad food, dirty beach, and let's not forget Sticky Vicky, the nude magician who makes things disappear and reappear out of her... - you see where I'm going with this. John tells me that yes, this was true of Benidorm in the 1980s and 90s, because that's where everybody went. But then it got a reputation for all the things I mentioned above, and the English stopped going. Thank God for that. The locals cleaned it up and enticed more Spaniards to come back to Benidorm now that the English were gone. The beach was immaculate, the only language I heard on the beach was Spanish (although John said he heard some French too) and we had a great day. Georgia spent the whole day snorkeling and watching the fish. The only time she came out was to put on a life vest and ride the banana boat with her dad. Christopher didn't care where we were. He just liked to dig in the sand. I'd go back again in a heartbeat.

Sticky Vicky is still there, so I guess some things never change. If you're really curious, I found her on YouTube, magically making a string of lights appear. I wonder where she plugged them in?

MTA: I realize that, after rereading my post, I sound like a real snob about Benidorm and the English. Trust me, I'm not. The English have a HORRIBLE reputation in Europe: big drinkers, loud, obnoxious, badly behaved and very rude. Unfortunately, there's some truth in that. So I don't like to go to really anglicized places for two reasons: (1) because I just don't want to be in that environment, particularly with kids, and (2) if I'm in a foreign country, I want to know that I'm in a foreign country. I want to hear another language, eat different food, and generally experience something other than what I'm used to.