Suppose you were spinning the wheel, letting lady luck lead you to the perfect holiday spot. Somewhere where it was peaceful, beautiful, filled with cute cafes and shops, and a tranquil beach.
Well, we spun the wheel and we ended up with....Lloret de Mar!!!! It's like getting the bullet in Russian roullette, seriously.
Loud, crass, tacky, crowded and crazy Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava in Spain - a Las Vegas meets Atlantic City meets Surfers Paradise, filled with fat Russians waddling down to the beach, singing Spaniards coming home from the disco at 5 am, shops selling mountains and mountains of inflatable rafts, water pistols, tasteless towels and all sorts of other plastic crap, sunburnt Scandanavians drinking Sangria at 9am, and everywhere, at every hour, noise, noise, noise.
So what's to like in Lloret de Mar? Well, on the plus side our apartment was nice, we had a washing machine to clean all our festering wardrobe, the bars and pizza restaraunts were very inexpensive, and the beach was amazing, with crystal clear cool water. And, funnily enough, with all this crazy hustle and bustle, it was impossible to be bored because there was always some hilarious site to behold. Italians playing paddle ball in speedos, screaming teenagers jumping off paddle boats, Norwegians singing football songs, Russian girls posing like they're appearing on the next cover of Vogue as they have their photos taken by their mother???
The interesting thing we noticed about Europeans is that they really grab summer by it's crazy beach balls and shake it for all it's worth, til every bit of fun is squeezed from it. They do not take summer for granted because it is short and sweet, and a freezing cold winter is just around the corner.
It is in sharp contrast to us in Australia, who are lazy about summer, take it for granted and are perhaps a bit spoiled. These crazy Europeans remind us how lucky we are. Such exhuberance is infectious too, so though we cannot give Lloret de Mar the thumbs up - and at times we felt like giving it the bullet - we did have fun anyway. But we did not get a good night's sleep ever there : ( Such is life.
Our next stop is the polar opposite, at 1800 metres above sea in the French Alps. Stay tuned to see what's up there next.
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