The Adventures of Studying Abroad: Costa Del Sol, Spain

April 1^{st -} Torremolinos, Spain

We woke up at 3:00 a.m. in order to catch our taxi which picked us up at the house at 4:00 a.m. This is what happens when you book the cheapest flight possible, they only leave at the extreme hours of the day so we had a 6:20 a.m. flight. Jacob and I chose Spain for his birthday weekend and we were more than excited. We did not go alone on this trip however Kadie, Charity, Rachel, Nicki, Ashley and Karissa also went. They all shared two rooms and Jacob and I had our own since we booked this trip before they did. We flew Ryanair for the first time and let’s just say that we weren’t very fond of it. Ryanair is a budget airline in Europe, and by budget I mean budget. We only paid $50.00 round trip to Spain. Much cheaper than flying to Florida in the U.S. The downfalls of Ryanair are endless. You have to pay 35.00 pounds per checked bag (I think it’s that much anyways), you’re carry on must fit in this teeny tiny compartment thing and trust me, they check it before you board the plane. The reason for them checking it is they want to find every reason to get money from you. If it doesn’t fit in the compartment they charge you 50 pounds to have it checked. Ryanair is also one big infomercial, and don’t get me wrong Billy Mayes, I love infomercials at 3 in the morning when I can’t sleep, but not on a plane where I would like to read my book in silence! For example, our flight was 3 hours long, twice they tried to sell us lottery scratchoffs, twice they tried to sell us international phone cards, and twice they tried to sell us food because no complimentary food is given (including water). Did I mention that I thought we were going to die before we even took off? The pilot announced that we were going to MOSCOW not Malaga, Spain! He said it 2 times and then eventually changed it to Spain. It’s nice to know that the person who’s in charge of getting you there is planning on taking you to a completely different country! Also, in the middle of this speech of how we were going to Moscow, the power on the plane completely shut off, and once it came back on the pilot says “Oh that’s not good.” Well isn’t that reassuring, I’m going up how many thousands of feet in the air, what will I do if the power shuts off while I’m up there? Contrary to some people laughing, I was not and was holding back tears because I was seeing my life flash before my eyes. Another thing about Ryanair is people tend to be extremely loud and noisy. Usually on planes everyone minds their own business but not on this flight. And the biggest problem was that their seats didn’t recline. Poor Jacob is so tall that his knees hit the seat the entire flight. Oh well, we got there around 10:00 a.m. their time and decided to take a taxi from the airport for 5 euros per person. This taxi was a lot less sketchy compared to the one in Rome since there were actual airport workers assigning us to a taxi. Much more legit. They let us check in early since we were there 3 hours before check-in time. Jacob and I decided to grab some lunch at a restaurant on the beach which was nice. Jacob was overly happy to find an omelet there. We then went to the ice-cream stand where Jacob and I both got mint chocolate chip. We basically spent the rest of the day laying on the beach since our hotel was right on it. We ended up with some pretty nasty sunburns which I’m still dealing with the after effects of. But it was all worth it to lay on the beach. As we were picking through the shells in the sand Jacob somehow cut his finger open and it was bleeding everywhere. Good thing we swiped the towels from the hotel which were white….not! White towels are not exactly good when it comes to red blood everywhere. We ran back to the hotel and asked the front desk for some band-aids and rubbing alcohol. We got him all bandaged up and returned the stuff to the desk. His cut was fine for the rest of the trip.

April 2^nd – Torremolinos, Spain

Jacob and I woke up at 9:30 a.m. went souvenir shopping. We also bought some much needed sunscreen and aloe vera to help the sunburns we already had and to prevent them from getting worse. Again we sat on the beach and relaxed. Collected some pretty cool shells some of which we plan on adding to our fish tank when we get home to the United States of America. We were sick of paying to eat out for every meal so we walked a mile to a familiar grocery store and spent 10 euros of which we got 4 meals out of. Much cheaper than eating out constantly. We watched a show they had at the hotel that night which was a mixture of dancing, acrobatics and magic. It was very entertaining even though we were in a room filled with elderly people. Most of the attractions at our resort were geared told the older people but we didn’t mind! We fit right in, remember? We read books in bed!

That night I also stepped on a frog while Jacob and I were walking around the pool. I felt something squirt up on my leg and I just assumed I stepped on a berry, but when I looked down there was a frog laying there. I definitely killed him and Jacob made me feel guilty for the rest of the night. Didn’t he think I felt guilty enough? I prayed for the frog and named him Franc. RIP Franc.

April 3^rd – Torremolinos, Spain

Woke up around 10 a.m. and ate some of the hot dogs we had purchased the night before. We had to be checked out of the hotel by noon, yet our flight didn’t leave until 8:30 p.m. They had a luggage room of which they let us store our backpacks for the day. We basically walked the beach and sat in the lobby for 3 hours until we could catch a taxi to the airport for our flight. Everything went great and we enjoyed Spain so much! We wish we could go back there every weekend!