Travel Diary: British flags on Spanish coasts

After stepping onto a plane without a cloud in sight, nothing speeds up the holiday blues like stepping off the plane and into the pouring rain. At least my swimming shorts were put to good use one final time, a two and a half hour flight certainly makes the difference and shows how far we can now travel in such a short space of time. For that I choose to appreciate the horizontal rain hitting my face as I walk down those soaked metal steps into British summertime.

There are some places in the world that I enjoyed but probably would not travel back to. This destination was certainly one of them, it was a blast and we met some great people… why wouldn’t I go back in a hurry? There was also some very pretty scenery and can be seen in my last post here, although from the resort it was hard to take photos without the masses of heavily built up areas obscuring the view.

Of course, a concrete jungle can be an attraction within itself, New York City and São Paulo to name a couple. Benidorm doesn’t have the same effect. It isn’t of the same scale and for this the buildings do not have the same impact in my opinion. There was the odd building that caught my attention, the In Tempo for example which can be seen below. Sadly, this beautiful building has not been occupied since completion in 2014.

AFP/Getty Images

Another point is that almost every building in the popular drinking resort is covered in British flags. Don’t get me wrong, seeing Union Jack bunting tied between palm trees was a fascinating sight, it is something you cannot see in the UK. It is however for me a sign that I should probably stay away, one thing I certainly do not want to see when travelling is British people blasting out Sweet Caroline on karaoke. The odd one or two is great but when Spanish accents are almost a rarity, I sometimes think why did I travel in the first place?

I went with friends, I wouldn’t go with family or girlfriend. Some sights we witnessed walking into what we though were typical pubs were too explicit to mention on here without breaking some kind of WordPress violation. For a party holiday in a home away from home it is ideal, as much as I would like to see it as anything but I really can’t!

But why should I? It didn’t seem like Benidorm tried to be anything but that. Both Spanish and British people were advertising the cheap full english breakfasts they had on offer at the same time offering us free shots, not knowing if we had just woken up or were finally heading to bed. It seems like that is the way. I remember one waitress saying how nice it was to have a group of males sit down and behave whilst having breakfast. When that is a rarity at breakfast, I would not like to see her norm…

Regardless, I am pleased I went, after all it was an experience that I wanted to have and if I told my readers I didn’t have a bunch of laughs and a great catch-up with some friends I haven’t seen for a while, I would be lying. Did I have fun? Plenty. Will I book next year? Not unless my friends did and asked me to go.

Will Benidorm always be such a resort? Even a gorgeous £72 million skyscraper built as a symbol of transformation died as the drunks stumble back to the cheap concrete hotels around it. It would take a lot of work to change it’s image, maybe one day this skyscraper will be the image of said change, with the Spanish flag rising here once again.