date: august 2nd 23:00pm
subject: postcards from spain - se vende > for sale

i had spanish back in business school. i think it's 4 years ago since i had my last lesson. at that time and ever since i haven't felt like i'd learned anything else than the line "me llamo..." (my name is...)...but being down here, reading signs and boards and speaking with spaniards, i've realized that i remember more from my spanish lessons than i thought. it's quite unbelievable...

today we spent most of the day by the beach. and the original plan was to have "a-sightseeing-free-day"...but that changed as it got pretty late before we even had the time to consider what we wanted for dinner. so we took a drive along the coast to this pretty incredible port (see the picture below) and had the most delicious pizza i've ever had. it was with spanish ham, rucola salad, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. yummy!

afterwards we drove back to fuengirola (the town we're staying) and had a sundowner. this time i got a 'sex on the beach'...'cause they didn't have strawberry daiquiri. buuuh! anyway...it was my first time i had that drink ever...and i might say that i think it was okay...not my favourite drink. actually i'm not any good at drinks based on juice or whatever this was based on. it reminds me too much of my young "vodka and orange juice" days. yuk!

the beautiful fantastic port (photo by either my father or my brother)

date: august 3rd 18:27pm
subject: postcards from spain - last day by the beach

my homesickness is taking over. i'm restless. can't sleep at night. and i miss people at home. when i was younger, i wasn't the type that got homesickness. at least not that easily. and the irony about homesickness is that it's normally linked to the fact that you miss your parents and your safe settings...but i have my parents with me on this trip...and i have my most important things with me (ipod, cellphone, books and ibook)...but still i miss being home so badly. it's idiotic! i blame most of my homesickness to all the things i'm going to do when i get home...things concerning the student house. i simply can't wait to get things going.

anyway today we started out late...and drove to marbella to try and find another beach. but it wasn't as easy as we'd thought it would be. the first problem was the lack of parking space. when that was finally solved, we'd parked at a beach so close to the harbour, that we actually didn't feel like bathing, but went for a walk instead.

on this walk we went by an australian and his wife sitting in their speed boat offering a wild tour in the waves...my father and brother couldn't resist, and eventually i gave in as well...so off we went. 350 horsepowers (whatever that means!), up to 40 knots and 180 degree turnings in the waves. we got soaked!! but damn it was fun. the adrenaline got up running. heheee.

after a tour like that we drove back to fuengirola. had lunch in the apartment and went for a long swim. right now i'm sitting on the couch (surprise surprise!!), writing this and waiting for my parents to come up from the beach so we can go up to the mountains and have a nice last dinner in malaga by the church in benalmadena just like we did last tuesday.

yes, this is our last whole day in malaga. tomorrow morning we're leaving the apartment and driving to madrid...so here's a picture of the moon rising.

moon rising

date: august 4th - 13:57pm
subject: postcards from spain - rain in costa del sol

it was raining when we left our apartment this morning. perfect. right now where driving up through spain, heading back for madrid. there's 38 degrees celsius here in the middle of nowhere and the sun is shining. i'm having a weak headache. actually i went to bed with a headache last night and woke up this morning, still having it. we're about 180 km from madrid...so about 2 hours of driving again. phew. i can't wait 'till we find our hotel...

23:45pm
after several hours of driving, we finally hit the airport and turned back the car we've rented for the past week. then we took a taxi and finally arrived at our hotel in the centre of madrid. a very lovely hotel indeed. (see the pics below!). then we went out for dinner and now we're back. my brother is fast asleep beside me while i'm sitting here in the bed...boiling over because of the heat. even though we have the air condition on. i'm looking very much forward to the breakfast buffet tomorrow morning. i'm gonna enjoy it and looking forward to sit in the flight home. i'm done with vacations!

my parents' room.

the bathroom.

the bed i'm sitting in right now.

oh by the way...i think i have figured out why i'm so allergic to the heat...when my mum was pregnant with me, she and my father worked and lived in iraq (as i've mentioned before in here)...and as some of you might know, pregnant women may not stay too long in the sun because of the heat. but it's often around 50 degrees celsius down there and my mum told me a story the other day where she and my father had problems with the car in the middle of the desert... so of course i'm allergic to heat...because it brings back the trauma of being inside my mum's overheated stomach. makes sense?! huh? maybe i should just try and get some sleep while i still can...