Welcome to Motril. Take One.

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Note: this is a second edition of this post. I re-read the first and decided to re-write it.

When I was working in Honduras I had to wake up every morning at 5:45 am. That is the life of a schoolteacher. Saturday morning I felt like I was back in Honduras. My alarm was set for 5:45 and I had a taxi coming to pick me up at 6:30 to take me to the bus station. All went as planned and I arrived at the bus station where I met Michael Lynn. She is another teacher who is placed in Motril with me and will be a roommate as well. My good friend Emily is also placed in Motril, and will be the third roommate of mine, but she will not be arriving in Motril until Tuesday night. Anyway, at 7 am our bus left and a little over 6 hours later we arrived in Motril.

At the bust station we found two taxis that could bring us to our hotel. Even though the hotel was only 5 blocks away, neither of us felt like dragging our two suitcases uphill and around the corner. We soon arrived at the hotel, via taxi, checked in, and then checked out (napped) in our respective rooms for 2 hours. We met up at 4 and headed out to explore Motril and began looking for pisos. We were successful in finding several “Se Aquila” signs (for rent) and jotted down several phone numbers. We also came across a couple of realtors who had photographs of pisos for rent in their windows and decided that we would check out the realtors on Monday.


Yup, still a Lions fan...

Today (Sunday) we ended up doing the exact same thing we did yesterday—walked around looking for “Se Aquila” signs and phone numbers. We came across several other pisos and wrote down a few more phone numbers. After two hours of walking around Motril we decided to retire back to the hotel for a nap (you got to love Spanish siestas). We decided to meet up afterwards to research more pisos online. After an incredible siesta I met Michael Lynn downstairs in the restaurant and we began to explore more pisos via the web. We researched for almost 2 hours. We eventually wore ourselves out and after sending off several emails to landlords we decided to head over to the hotel’s lobby where we began watching our respective football teams (Lions for me and Cowboys for her) via an online television channel I had found. During this time I received a phone call from one of the private owners of a piso I had written an email to earlier. It was also one of the pisos that Michael Lynn and I both liked. We set a meeting time with the landlord at 9 o’clock and Michael Lynn and I walked down towards the location of the piso early to grab a quick bite to eat. After a quick tapa we walked over to the entrance of the building and met the landlord (a couple and their daughter). The apartment was on the fourth floor of the building and had a great view of the street below. It was well equipped with the necessities (plates, silverware, glasses, pots and pans, etc.) with newer furniture and décor. It is the first piso we have seen so we are trying to keep an open mind, but it was pretty awesome.



The living room. Check out the listing here

After going our separate ways with the landlords right after touring the apartment we ended up running back into the couple (minus their daughter). Michael Lynn and I were still a little hungry so we asked if they knew of any good places to get a tapa. They asked if we liked fish and we said “yes,” (a little bit of a lie for me…) and they said to follow them. They ended up taking us to a smaller tapa bar and bought us drinks. Unlike in Sevilla, here in Motril when you buy a drink, you get a free tapa. So the first tapa we got was a fried white fish, which was very well marinated. This was very good and I enjoyed. After polishing off this tapa we got a second. However, this one did not look as pleasant—octopus. Michael Lynn and I had eaten octopus the previous day right after our bus ride to Motril. We had tried it and it was rather chewy. If I had a preference I would have stayed away from it, but I was still hungry and this really friendly couple was buying us dinner. So, I ate it. It was chewy, but doable. Like calamari, it will take me some time to get used to it.

What a day. We spend 4 hours looking for pisos. Received a phone call about one of our top choices. Go see this top choice, which is owned by an extremely nice family and ends up being really nice itself, and then we have dinner with the couple! A great start to my time here in Motril.

Right now the plan is for us to go check out other places tomorrow and then hopefully decide by tomorrow night what we want to do. We are both eager to find a place and settle in. I’ll keep you updated.