It was much easier to leave Cordoba than it was to get in. Then again we had directions from the lady at the desk. As we made our way out I looked around at the city, it's people, it's parks, and it's fountains. Yet again I wasn't ready to leave. One good thing about leaving Cordoba was that I knew that we were going to go to a seaside resort and use that as our home base.
We were going to be able to fix our own food, we were going to be able to have a kitchen and living room again, and we we could come and go as we pleased. I couldn't wait to see what this reserved place looked like. While on the road I wrote blogs, getting through several days despite the shortage of time and the curves. I was ready to have work out of the way so I could calm down on the beach and relax.
Ahmee and Poppy followed the directions they were given and when we got close to Marbella they told me I should put the computer up. I ended up seeing several large cities and the mountains and the sea before we got truly close to the resort. I enjoyed it. I got to read the signs and point out things alongside the road (such as the IKEA store-Ahmee and I have wanted to visit one since Germany, Poppy's not too keen on the idea) and I got to see the area of turisticos and resorts. It seemed like the whole area was just one large condo after the next, pretty much like some areas of Mexico and Florida. We wondered just how well they'd cope with the downturn of the economy and whether or not the construction on the new resorts would be finished any time soon.
We managed to reach our resort fairly easily. We didn't get lost, the directions were well done (every now and then we get good directions that don't leave out important things), and so we were able to find the front desk. We got the keys, were warned to not leave anything out in the car because people were watching, were told to lock the doors before we left, and were told about the security safe that was hidden in the kitchen. I was sooooo excited about the security safe because it was hidden behind an inconspicuous little thing (since I don't know who's reading this I'm not going to say what exactly the safe looked like). I put checking that thing out near the top of my to do list.
We followed their directions again up to our suite (was away from the main building). We had a good time opening the gate with a press key, closing the gate the same way, checking out our suite (which I'll go into more detail about later), moving our things in, and then leaving to go to the beach. Later we spent some time poking around the rooms (me organizing things-again go into more detail later).
We parked our car in our parking spot, grabbed our things, and then walked into the entryway to step right in. The maid was still busy preparing the rooms. We let her know we were just leaving our suitcases and our things and then we partially moved in. Once inside you could see several things. The walls were a pale yellow, the floors were tiled, the trimming was white, the railing to the stairs was painted dark blue (almost black), and there was a lot of light coming from the downstairs. Sorry, that's not nearly enough of a description.
The entryway was the landing to the two flights of stairs. Upstairs there were two bathrooms, one with a shower (this was mine), and the other with a bathtub (Ahmee and Poppy's-they got the better deal), and two bedrooms one with red and orange bedding and curtains (Ahmee and Poppy's) and the other with two twin beds and different shades of green as it's color scheme (not the walls-all of the walls were yellow). The curtains were drawn and we were in a hurry so all we got to see was the sunlight coming in through the colored curtains.
We left to go down to the beach, eat at the Papillion, a restaurant that was right on the beach and that was recommended by the desk (also said we could get a ten percent discount). We were there early and grabbed one of the first seats in the shade of the restaurant. From there we ate a great meal (me salmon and potatoes and green beans-no idea what else was ordered), and had spectacular seats for the action. We could see all the people coming in to eat, we could see the vendors coming up to sell their purses and jewelry, and we go to watch the waves come in (pretty hypnotizing really). As we sat there we got the distinct idea that most of the people around us were from England and Germany. We didn't blame them for wanting to get away to this place, and we guessed the weather up there wasn't much better than what we were hearing was happening over in the states (my sister's told me that it's been snowing every day, just not sticking).
I also had a "whoa" moment. All of the men who were selling purses and necklaces and other items were black. I was reminded of the men selling the same items in Barcelona and how if they were caught they were deported. While we sat there I looked at the ocean and went, "Africa is just over there.... Whoa! We're a boat-ride away from Africa!" Shortly after I realized this I asked Ahmee where we were planning on going while we were there. Gibraltar was at the top of my list.
When we were done with almuerzo (lunch) we went for a walk on the beach. I took off my toe-socks and my tennis shoes to walk barefoot on the pebbly beach. While walking the sun we incredibly relaxing and the feel of the rocks and the sand on my feet felt wonderful. The water however was freezing cold. I wasn't about to jump in like I'd did when in Italy. I was amazed at the men and women who were out sunbathing in their swimsuits, we were all huddled up like it was freezing cold out. As we walked though the sun warmed us up.
While walking Ahmee and I spent a large percent of the time picking up smooth white zen-rocks and sea glass. I made sure to watch out for sharp sea glass so that every time I set my foot down I was certain I wasn't going to get cut.It wasn't long before we decided to head out, on the way to the car we ran into an elderly man who was out walking his dog. We pet the dog and spoke to him and then got on our way.
Before we went back to the room we stopped by the grocery store that was right next to the camp ground and grabbed dinner and breakfast and other goodies for our stay. When I looked at the receipt I realized that by shopping for our own food we got 3 meals for 3 people for the price of one meal for one person in a restaurant (this is including bread and drink and appetizer and desert). Another benefit of eating at home! On our way back to the room we stopped by the main building and grabbed beach books for Ahmee and Poppy (I had to pick Poppy's).
Now I get to describe more of the apartment because this time we got to open the door (was difficult at first because there's a trick to the locks) and walk all around. We took the groceries downstairs and discovered at the base of the stairs the kitchen, the dining corner, the living room with a fireplace (decorative) and a tv, the double door that opened up to the patio (this was outside and we could walk out on the courtyard and to the pool), and other things. We put the groceries away and I decided that I needed to go out and clean out the car. I cleaned out the back seat and I grabbed a table cloth for the dining corner. I threw out trash, I put the table clothes down and then I went and put my stones and shells into the safe. It was soooooooo cool. While I played with it Ahmee laughed when I oohed and ahhhed at the mechanism. I want a safe in my kitchen when I grow up!
After this I went upstairs to put my things into my white closet and to organize my room and my bathroom. I put my clothes on the shelves, I put my suitcase away, I put my pj's on top of my stack of towels, I took a bottle out of my suitcase (got this in the Hostel Cardinal-I loved the shade of blue) and set it in the sun, I put my book bag into the closet along with my shoes, and I put my hygiene bag into the bathroom. After looking at my clothes I decided that I wanted to wash almost everything. I did just that and hung all of my things out on the clothes rack on the upper terrace (with Poppy's help) after an hour of stomping on sudzy clothes in the bathtub. I then went downstairs to discover that Poppy had brought more in. We had maps, books, bags, newspapers, and other things strewn across the glass table. I was in a cleaning mood so I grabbed all of the books and stacked them up, I consolidated the bags into one bag, I threw away old newspapers, and I moved everything off the kitchen table and put them neatly on the side table for the couch and on the coffee table. I then put down the table clothes. When Ahmee came down she said, "Oh Rachel I like your house-keeping! We've been moved in!" I smiled. I like the place we're staying in. It's filled with light, it has decoration elements I like (the windows and the seating arrangement), and it feels very homey. It's not too small, we all have our own space, but then again we aren't rattling around in a huge casa.
Shortly after "moving in" we got ready for happy hour. We pulled out the cheeses, the fruits, and the drinks and sat down at the table to talk about what needed to be done and what we wanted to do. While there we developed a plan to spend the next day catching up on blogs, reading, and basically just relaxing. After that we'd go on daytrips to Gibraltar and to Granada (other places later).
While we ate our appetizers and drank our drinks (me orange juice with fizzy water, and Ahmee and Poppy wine) the sun slowly sank down the sky, for the first time in a long time I was ready to type. Immediately after happy hour I got to work on my blogs and Ahmee and Poppy read. I sat in the curved corner and typed until Ahmee and Poppy told me it was dinner time.
During dinner I sat on the built in bench: along two walls of the corner dining room there was a bench and there were three regular seats. I had a wonderful time talking to Ahmee and Poppy, asking them how their books were, asking them about Gibraltar, talking about visiting Africa, and talking about why we each liked the resort and our space so much. I told them one of my favorite things about the place was the dining area. I told them about how when I was younger (I occasionally still do this) I would draw dream homes. Often these dream homes were drawn when I was at my dads house and I'd give my father and everyone else in the house a palace to live in. I designed incredible bedrooms, and over-the-top living rooms. I never did focus much on the kitchens or the parents room until I got a bit older. I started trying to make "average" homes, something my dad might some day get (like I split the girls one room into two rooms, instead of my old wish of each kid having his/her own room) and something that combined things that I'd seen in design catalogs (I've looked at hundreds of thousands of design catalogs and home/garden catalogs-and I've read an even greater amount of books on fantastic design elements). I'd try out different scenarios and put the family into a different home. It was like playing with a doll house, except I never did get tired of it and I never got tired of showing people my drawings. One of the things I put into many kitchens was a table that had a built-in bench around it. With five kids in my dad's house I thought it would be too cool to have everyone scoot in and have a booth (one of my favorite places to sit in a restaurant is the booth because it's cushioned), or a cushioned seat that looked similar to one (doesn't need to be tacky). I told Ahmee and Poppy that the seating arrangement was one that I'd pictured for my dad's house more than once. The main difference was that the seat I'd pictured for my dad had storage space under the seats. You could lift the seat lid and there'd be places to put winter clothes, christmas decorations, games, toys, you name it you can put it in there. Ahmee thought it was a very practical idea and that if we were to live in the space the seats would need to be storage areas because in a house you always need as much storage space as you can get.
After dinner I got my pj's on, and got into bed.
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