Costa del Cloud, Spain

Nerja and the Costa del Sol

It would not be fair of me to say I’ve seen the Costa del Sol, I haven’t.  I’ve been to Nerja and Malaga, that’s about it.  I didn’t even spend any time in Malaga!  So really this is just Nerja.

My time here is up.  I’ve spent the last four months living in Spain, roughly from February to July.  I am leaving Nerja but not Spain just yet.  My opinion is a bleak one to be honest.  I feel like there has rarely been a day without cloud cover, although there is plenty of sun, and heavy winds.  It’s simply not as warm, sunny and pleasant as all the hype had me believe.  For a seasoned traveller like myself I feel a bit duped!

There have been many aspects of my trip that have not aloud Nerja to be all that it could have been.  I never really looked for work, and when I did find some it turned out to be a shambles and nothing that lasted despite promises to the contrary.  There is also some difficulty for me in getting excited about earning five Euros an hour; I’m simply used to making better money!  Friends.  Sadly I never made any friends here beyond the couch surfer I stayed with originally, and he left about a month ago, leaving me more or less alone.  When I started doing my Freegan way it introduced me to a few people, but they seem to be wanderers and many of them I don’t see regularly, at the shops or on the streets.

Let’s look at the positives for a moment.  Nerja is beautiful as well as being just big enough to not be too dull.  My sister was living in Pesaro, Italy, for a year, and that was beautiful but too small, here, if I want to take a two hour walk, it’s possible.  Yes, I must go out of town a bit, but at least it’s possible and still very pretty.  The hills in the foreground and the see covering everything else.  What other positives can I come up with?  If you have no desire to ever speak Spanish, then this is the place.  My Spanish is possibly worse than when I arrived! I did get to see every Liverpool match they played this past four months, but then I could have done that in Asia, and it’s not really an attribute to the location.

Okay, I’m finding this difficult as you can see.  Ultimately, the end of a confusing and rough year is upon me.  In August I’ll head to Laos and start a new chapter, as often is the case I’m looking forward to this new chapter.  Nerja has given me the chance to create this blog.  That’s a positive without a doubt.  It’s also given me ample time to sit in front of this screen and learn how to do web design semi-properly, that’s a big positive.

Take a look: www.hasbeansbrooklyn.com

With any luck I’ll start to do more and more web design especially in Laos where I’ll have the never easy task of convincing people to spend money on something they probably don’t need; i.e. a website!

Okay, that’s it for me tonight.  I have Audrey Hepburn waiting for me in How to steal a million dollars and I’m looking forward to it.  In terms of coming on holiday to Nerja and the Costa del Cloud, all I can say is best of luck; it’s not that cheap and often not that sunny.  At least not in springtime!