Nerja

ah, the mediterranean. we meet again.

balcony of europe.  our hotel faced this lovely little square

cutest little beach hut!  i loved how vibrant the colours are!

thank you, i take wonderful pictures of people

the alhambra...the architectural detail on all of the palaces and random buildings was breathtaking

this is why we have a tripod

beautiful sunset...almost as beautiful as vancouver sunsets

nerja has been great for lying on the beach doing absolutely nothing important.  other than that, i think it's a pretty mediocre beach town.  it is overrun with brits and other english-speaking tourists.  oh, and germans.  while i love that every afternoon from 2pm till approximately 6 or 7, we are lying on the beach with occasional dips in the freezing mediterranean sea, i have to say i haven't been super impressed by the scenery.  

wait, let me back up.  i feel like i have heard the term "warm mediterranean sea" used many times (maybe too poetically) in everyday speech, in books, in prose, in travel brochures, etc. etc.  i'm not sure if those people were here in the middle of july, because now in the beginning of september, i suspect the arctic shelf that recently broke off is hanging out here, about a mile away from the shoreline.  it is absolutely freezing.  i know most oceans and even lakes feel a little cold at first, but this is cold enough that when i dip my feet, my feet actually hurt from the coldness.  if the sun's not beating down my back, even when i'm fully immersed in the water and used to the temperature, it can get a bit too breezy and chilly in the water.  i have to tell alex to prove his manliness in order to get him to jump in - haha.

so, back to the scenery.  there's something about beach towns.  i'm still on the fence about how i feel about them.  anyway, having grown up in vancouver, then transplanted to toronto, i have a deep, profound, obsessive, and biased opinion about how beautiful vancouver is.  i compare many cities to it...and so far south of spain hasn't measured up.  the mountains here are yellow for crying out loud!  it's missing some lushness and some of that really natural, i-am-not-trying-at-all beauty.  for example, north shore in oahu, hawaii is absolutely stunning, but waikiki and honolulu try too hard and are too commercialized.  i feel that so far what i've seen is closer to the waikiki-style than the north-shore-haleiwa-style.  

so i'm picky.  however, have had great fun out here lying on the beach, adding colour to alex's glow-in-the-dark self, and becoming uber-tanned that i am the centre of jealousy in our hotel room (can't compare self to those bronzed people who live out here).  also had an amazing seafood meal in frigiliana thanks to tina's suggestion, and drank quite a bit of sangria.  we move on to barcelona - commercialization, shopping, city fun, here we come!  oh and tapas.  and paella coz i haven't had any yet.