St. David’s Day 2017

St. David’s Day 2017

We awoke at nine a.m. on St. David’s Day 2017, March 1st., in Fuengirola, Spain. It had been a late night saying ‘Goodbye’ to friends, but we had to get up, finish our packing and leave the luxury apartment as per our contract. Neither of us were in the mood for this, but the lure of an even better, three-bed-roomed penthouse suite for the same price was attractive. We hadn’t seen it yet, but we had to be in the estate agent’s office by noon..

We made it on time exhausted with all our luggage; paid the next month’s rent and handed over our keys. We were passed another set of keys, and a contract to sign.

‘The penthouse suite is not ready yet – the walls are still wet and mouldy, but we have another three-bedder for you. Sorry. However, it is perfect for a writer – very quiet’.

So, we set off for the new apartment, which was not far, feeling rather cheated out of the luxury, front-line penthouse that we had been looking forward to with great excitement for the past four weeks.

It turned out to be a nice, typically Spanish townhouse apartment on the first floor. It is large-ish and with two extra bedrooms that we have no use for. There is no Internet and no foreign-language TV, but it is only a hundred metres from the sea. It is quite a significant downgrade and disappointment really, and not at all quiet – there is renovation work going on all around us. I will never trust an estate agent again, AND we have to move out on June 30th with nowhere else to go!.

Look for a review of AMC Inmobiliaria (estate agency) elsewhere on this blog.

That afternoon, we went exploring the ‘new area’. We are a hundred metres from a brilliant, local, Spanish restaurant-cafe-bar, that is cheap and comes with Wi-Fi. It is a great compensation, so we had lunch there and went ‘home’.

In the evening, we went out again looking for a bar that might be sending out the Wi-Fi signal called ‘Costa del Sur’. Our first find was an Irish bar, but they didn’t have Internet, so we had a pint, picked up some local knowledge and moved on. One of the things we learned was that an English bar nearby was having a Welsh night for St. David’s Day, so we moved over there, promising to return to watch the Wales-Ireland rugby match on Saturday.

The English bar, Her Majesty’s was friendly and we met lots of expats, two of whom, a Welsh couple, had produced a buffet of British food with a Welsh bias, including bara brith and Welsh cakes. My wife and I were impressed and had a great time there although Neem was dog-tired after lugging one of our bags that morning. Halfway home, I realised that I no longer had my writing pack, which I take everywhere with me, but still often lose.

I wanted to return to Her Majesty’s to look, but Neem suggested checking the Irish Bar first, although it wasn’t the closer of the two.

However, she was right, as usual, and after retrieving my writing case we went home.

Our St. David’s Day 2017, had started off in a disappointing manner, but by the end of the day, we had found three new local establishments, which were full of friendly people, who would make the following few months more enjoyable.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: St. David’s Day 2017