Blogs from Andalusia, Spain, Europe - page 300

Driving a car in southern Europe is indeed an experience in itself, although not recommended the non-aggressive, nervous, or fainthearted driver. The law of the jungle prevails. Demolition derby is a more suitable description than anything related to civilized traffic. Parking the car follows roughly the same principles. Squeeze your car into any spot where it appears fairly out of the way for the surrounding traffic. A dent or two comes with the territory. On those terms the profession of “aparcacoches” was born. “Aparcacoches” (roughly translated “car parkers”) have nothing in common with valet parkers. “Aparcachoces” are not exactly unionized employees, bums rather homeless bums in desperate need of money. But their creativity must be admired. A profession created out of the modern traffic problems. Appears to be a territorial work, where every bum has his ... read more

My tour of the Alhambra had a rough start. A stomach upset from the shrimps I thoroughly enjoyed for lunch on my last day in Morocco kept me close to the hotel for a whole day. That or something else morphed into a terrible cold overnight, when the temperature in the hotel room was far below tropical paradise levels. Feeling cheated of a portion of my holiday, I stole a toilet roll from the bathroom and chose a seat at the back of the tour bus for the two-hour ride from Torremolinos to the Alhambra , a Medieval-Renaissance castle originally built when the area was Islamic. Out the window, the semi-mountainous terrain was picturesque, except for those places were people on top of the hills treated the steep cliffs as garbage dumps, a strange practice in ... read more

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