Days 451-457, 6-12 Sept '15 - Fuengirola and Marbella Old & New with an old friend.

Utter exhaustion. That's our only excuse for a late weekly blog. We have been taking it easy with good reason mind you. Late Tuesday evening our dear friend Carmen arrived for a 3 day visit. We met Carmen and her daughter about 4 years ago when they visited Sydney. We hosted them in our home as part of belonging to a home exchange network (check out www.homeforexchange.com). It was great to meet our first ever Spanish folks and though Carmen didn't speak a word of English we all had a great time. A mere 18 months later we visited Carmen at her apartment in Arcos de la Frontera - one of Andalucia's white villages. An amazing pueblo/village and the apartment was built in the late 1800s. An incredible visit - even though Carmen still spoke no English. We had a huge time - listened to flamenco and tasted the sherry and tapas in Jerez, saw the spectacular dancing white horses of Andalucia, took a horse and carriage around Seville and even played dress ups in her old flamenco frocks (obviously not James). Since we're back in Spain, our spiritual home, we thought we'd get in touch and invite Carmen to visit for a few days. I have been puttering away learning Spanish on and off since last July. Now I can shop, order, eat and get around quite adequately. Which is lucky, because after 3 days of utter immersion with Carmen, my brain was fried. Mushed. Smushed. Needed to be flushed. Phew. The more I understood, the faster she talked and the more words she used! A bit of frustration here and there but a massive time was had by all three of us. Only a couple of hiccups where I would be discussing something with Carmen, forget to translate through to English for James... and then wonder why he didn't know what plans were and when they changed. Whoops. Carmen is keen to buy a winter getaway apartment in glitzy Marbella, about 30 kms down the coast, so we went for a stroll down the esplanade and took notes on available properties (and had a drink and tapas... here in Spain almost everything can be suffixed with that... did the groceries/went for a walk/went to the post office/visited an internet cafe for printing... and then we had a drink and tapas!) One evening we headed for Marbella's Casco Antigua or old town. I saw it last year but it was James's first time and I must admit - stunning and gem-like by night. Luckily it was Carmen's treat as the prices in Marbella are enough to make credit cards cut themselves in half. Next evening we took Carmen to our super-duper most favourite restaurant in Fuengirola - probably our second to last visit (sigh...) Where else will we find a posh 3 course meal for only 12 euros a head - with table cloths, candlelight and hot and cold running waiters. Final night with Carmen we had a seafood fiesta here at home (en casa) - 3 different fish, squid, mussels and prawns. Phew! It was a great visit and we'll no doubt see her again next year... in the meantime, need to learn more and more and even more Spanish. (It's paid off though... had to go to an internet cafe for printing this week and conversational chit chat has come along so much!) What's up in the near future? Packing (aargh!), visiting a "one day" restaurant we've been meaning to see, planning our 3 days in Athens which is coming up in just 10 days time, then off to Cyprus on 28 September. Right... now about that rest...