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Published: October 22nd 2008
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Our apartment and new area - Los Arenales del Sol
Moving from Japan to Spain was quite a shock and a little difficult. Barely anything about one another can be compared. Ok, maybe that both countries don’t speak English.
Spain is an extremely relaxed country, something we are totally not use to. Everything in Spain takes ten times as long, and they don’t seem to mind! Summer time is especially bad as everyone is on holidays, and the people who are working, finish early so they can go to the beach! Our swimming pool rules even say that no swimming is allowed between 3 and 5 pm - siesta time. (I don’t really want to complain about Spain, but these things made moving here quite difficult.)
Now we are settled in our apartment in Alicante with the beach close by and sun shining (almost)everyday! That is no exaggeration, during July, August and September, I don't remember a day that wasn't sunny! The beaches here aren’t quite as beautiful as I expected, not many can beat Australia’s, however, on a good calm day, the water is crystal. Alicante is known for its beaches, the city centre even has
its own, but most people head to the strip of beaches exactly where we live (Los Arenales del Sol - The Sands of Sun) and further on to Santa Pola.
A few weeks ago I went for a long walk along the beach. Towards the end of the long strip, I came across the nudist part of the beach! Mostly old men and a few gay couples, not a pretty sight!
Back on the normal beach, bathing and tanning topless is very popular and it is always amusing to spot the fake ones! Unlike Australia (I think anyway), in Spain many more oldies go to the beach and bikinis are popular no matter what age. The men are also big fans of Speedos and getting dark, dark tans.
The beach usually gets packed from around 10am, and then empties around 2pm when everyone goes home to prepare lunch and enjoy siesta time. Late afternoon, from 5pm, it is busy again! On Saturday nights, families pack their cars full of homemade food, cutlery, chairs, tables, eskies and sometimes barbecues and head to the beach to set up their family feasts right on the sand!
We watch much
more TV here than in Japan, mainly news and sport even though nothing is in English. They show a lot of old shows here, like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Carebears, Popeye and The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire - they even dubbed the song in Spanish! I was surprised to see some Australian drama shows like Sea Change, Police Rescue, the Croc Hunter and some kids surfing drama.
When watching the news, I usually have my Spanish-English dictionary on hand and it is a good way to learn (unless it is the Valencian news and a lot of words are in the Valencian dilect!). On the news here they often show more graphic things (like dead people) than what they would in Oz which surprised me. As everything is late in Spain, so is the main news which is at 9pm.
During summer there are outside markets just one street back from our apartment block. Tuesdays all the stalls have lots of cheap fresh fruit and veggies and Fridays there are all sorts of stalls - clothing, accessories (copy watches, handbags, sunnies), home wares, sweets, olives and fruit and veg.
The city centre (Alicante) is a
20-30 minute bus ride or 15 minute drive. There are not really any shops in our area as it is mostly apartment blocks so we drive to the next city, Gran Alacant, or to Alicante for our groceries.
As I am posting this blog, summer has unfortunately already passed. No more markets, no more people on the beach, and no more people! Everyone has disappeared from our area! Even almost all of the restaurants have shut for the winter!
Enjoy the pics (I know, long awaited for you mum!) and any visitors are welcome! As you will see in my next blogs Danielle and Amira have already visited us!!
By the way, my title is named after a French/Spanish movie set in Barcelona I watched a long time ago, good movie, you should see it!
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Ibermaxx
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Very nice apartment and nice place too. Kind regards guys! www.hiszpanskie-nieruchomosci.pl