the grand old lady of " the three sisters " along the Costa between Malaga and Marbella.
Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Fuengirola.
In that specific order from Malaga direction.
And as I have understood, Torre was there first, well not maybe first first,
but first with turists to hit the beaches.
Atleast I have always considered its the oldest turist haven here..
- please do correct me here if Im wrong ;)
For some reason we just hadnt been there before, the train takes only less than 20mins from where we live.. but somehow just have always passed it.
so first time for everything. Not for me though, but for kids, I have been there several times when younger, but this was my first time for years and years and years..
My expectations were crappy and old.. as it was and is.( sorry Torre lovers ) But still very busy and has its own appeal still there, shining in hiding..lots of us costaexpats still choose to live there, not just turists..
its a bit funky place cuz its center is really high up incomparison to the other 2 towns ( villages ) and you climb up and down these steps to beach each day ( ok we did find a lift too ) and there seems to be many more little streets for pedestrians only, than in Benalmadena and Fuengirola.. so in that way, cool with kids.. -safer. The walk down to the beach from the center was not bad though, lots of little shops and pretty details, and steps were easy.
I said earlier we did find this lift from up from the center to down to beach and back.. -there is one. I dont know how late at night it operates, but I must say I would never take it at night light.. even the road there was so shady..probably was cool at some point, but now its one scary hole.. but daylight is ok. 50cnts per head saved our evening since Ines was really tired at that point and we were just heading home.. The guy asking for the 50cnts is only upstairs, so basically down at the beachend is no-one and no cameras..
All the time today at Torremolinos gave me sort of creeps, the only place and the first place here around at the Costa that made me think " get on your streetgirl mind on"- I can easily imagine guys on motorbike, scooter or just bike to come and crap your bag.. it just gave that feeling. Ive seen some places around the world and been here all over - this was the first time I had this feeling here anywhere, that get your senses open girlfriend... I might be wrong I might be right- nothing happened, home safe ;)
but watch out when you go there.. or maybe I am just hallucinating. could be too :)
I dont know excatly how much people lives there around the year, but would imagine something between 70-80 000 and then all the tourists to top it. So it is a small " town" But I could easily see all over that the best glory for sure is gone.. lots of empty business real estate and many many buldings seen their best days.
It seems to be now that FC Barcelona is having The Year Of The Century by winning everything (YEAHHH!)
their football stuff is all over her for sale..
And Ines found her personal heaven..
Its sometimes funny to follow the mind of a 3year old, she somehow associated -a birthday- to this shop, but not hers though; to Patriks ( in less than a month ) She sat down, gave some poses and said " when its pappas birthday pappa will take me there and I will get a present"
I have also understood Torremolinos is somewhat so liberal that is the gaycapital of the Costa... parties go on everynight and day. Dont know better than what Ive heard but this was the first place in the Costa Ive seen rainbow flags hanging openly! ( spain is oldfashioned in some ways.. )
Up in the center we found this "Park of European Union"... we had fun trying to find Finland.. and we did!
Next to the park was also the only Fish Massage place I have so far found here.. oooh kids had so much fun with watching guys taking foot massage.. They were still talking about this when we got back home.
But I must say.. the best part of the day was this finding...ooooh, we just love these 1 euro gameparks ;)
hahaaa... We did bowling, Ines rode a horse, they drove formula, played football " el clasico" all over again, I mean ofcourse in Spain the table football is also Barca vs R.Madrid ... and table hockey and Oskar got to shoot The Hillybillies.. hey who doesnt wanna shoot the hillybillies, eh?
There should be more sillyness in the this world!!
While Oskar was shooting these dudes, I was keeping an eye on Ines.. she was watching some adult man boxing with a machine, watching and watching- and I thought ok, she is fine there. But the second I turned my back this guy had finished and Ines was there putting on the boxing gloves.. she had no coin and she is faaar too small to even hit the game. But she was boxing-
.. what a 3 yrs old girl I have!
Just gotta love her, even though she drives me mad sometimes with her tantrums,
she is just one wildcat you gotta adore..
I say. Go somewhere, if not Torremolinos, somewhere, this Costa is great. Pools are great, beach is great, sun is great. But sometimes even that gets boring and house feels too small. Take a train or a bus, this costa is full of different places, little bit of smile found with easy effort...
This is what Torremolinos did to us ..
Its US crazy people that keeps the world Rocking On!
This is my Ines dancing Ballet at the Main Square of Torremolinos
