If there's one place on earth where the negative image of the British tourist was cultivated it has to be Benidorm.
It’s almost like a slice of England was picked up and dropped on the
Spanish coast. You hardly ever hear a word of Spanish spoken, horribly
sunburned people on package tours eat British food, drink British beer
in British style pubs, at night they get very drunk and abusive.
If
I was traveling solo it would have probably been the last place in
Europe I would have gone by choice. But Lee Haywood had chosen to come
here for his stag week with about a dozen others from back home. It
would be the first time in 8 years since I have been in a foreign
country with friends so I didn’t want to miss out.
I
finally arrived after an 8 hour bus ride from Barcelona, and checked in
to the same apartments as they had only a few hours earlier. The fact I
had to pay a 50 Euro deposit showed the problem they had with previous
guests. It was basic but I will give it credit for the fact it was a big
room with private bathroom that cost less than a 8 bed dorm room cost
in Barcelona. The skyline looked more like Hong Kong than a Spanish
holiday resort town, but then again I was aware of this before I went.
I
had no idea of where they all were so I just walked out in a random
direction and found them all within 5 minutes. They hardly walk far at
the best of times!!!!!!!!!! Predictably they had been drinking since the
airport in the morning and were well “on the way”. Lee took us round
the bars as he had been there several times before. The drinks were
cheap in some of the bars, I paid 1 euro for a beer that cost 5 in a bar
in Barcelona. So along with the room I will at least give Benidorm
credit for one thing.
That
first night was a bit of a mess crawling from bar to bar, everyone went
back to the apartments at different times from 8PM to 4AM. I was one of
the later ones!!!!!!! At one point we were all wearing stupid wigs that
someone got hold of.......
35TH BIRTHDAY !!!!!!!!!!!!
I
felt more like 75 than 35 and spent a large chunk of the day asleep. I
didn’t care as most of the others we around the pool or at the beach.
Activities which as I have stated at length elsewhere I don’t do. We all
regrouped near the pool sometime in the evening, some had been drinking
all day which in that heat meant they weren't going to be seeing much
of the night.
As well as my birthday there was the England - Ukraine euro 2012 match
which we watched in a nearby bar. I have to admit that I didn’t like
the atmosphere there, I felt that if England had lost that match there
would have been fights breaking out in the street. I suppose it’s the
end result of spending so much time in laid back backpacker bars with a
mixture of nationalities.
By
the end of the game some of our group were looking worse for wear,
after the previous days drinking we seemed to be losing one from our
group every half an hour. I have to admit that I was forcing myself to
stay out just because it was my birthday. It was then that I properly
noticed how many old people there were in Benidorm, they seemed to be
everywhere. They looked the type that had been coming every year since
the 1980s. There didn’t seem to be any young peoples bars or clubs in
the area that we were. So I can’t even say that I wish I had gone there
10 years earlier. Some others in the group said that they weren't too
impressed with the town.
I
was ready to leave on my final full day there, I did little beyond walk
to the station for my bus ticket to Madrid. A minor stomach upset
insured I didn’t do a lot else that day. I went out that night but only
had a couple and was in bed before midnight. I left for Madrid early the
next morning, the rest of the group were staying one extra day.
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